Humans and animals share a remarkable capacity to sense when others are in distress and respond with comforting behavior. But the motivation for doing so, and why it sometimes breaks down, has been poorly understood. UCLA Health researchers sought to better understand this in a new study published in Nature that uncovered the brain circuitry in mice linking two seemingly distinct social behaviors: caring for vulnerable offspring and comforting distressed peers. The findings provide the first direct neural evidence for a long-standing evolutionary ...

Scientists and agricultural researchers from around the world will gather online on March 11, 2026 for the 22nd session of the Carbon Research International Forum, an academic webinar series focused on advancing research and dialogue in soil science and carbon management. The upcoming forum will feature a keynote lecture by soil scientist Dr. Nanthi Bolan from The University of Western Australia, who will discuss how organic carbon amendments can simultaneously enhance soil health and contribute to carbon sequestration in agricultural systems. The online event will take place at 2:00 PM Beijing time and will be hosted by Professor Hailong Wang of Foshan ...

Agricultural plastic mulch films are widely used around the world to increase crop yields, conserve soil moisture, and suppress weeds. However, once these films are discarded, they can persist in the environment for decades, contributing to soil contamination and plastic pollution. A new study shows that these difficult to recycle plastics could instead be transformed into valuable chemical products using a biochar based catalytic process. Researchers investigated a method for converting waste plastic mulch film into useful chemicals through catalytic pyrolysis. In this process, plastic is heated in the absence of oxygen, causing the long polymer ...

Microplastics are widely recognized as pollutants in oceans and waterways, but scientists are increasingly discovering that they are also accumulating in agricultural soils. A new scientific review highlights a largely overlooked dimension of this problem: the complex interactions between soil microbes and viruses that occur on the surface of microplastic particles. The study reveals that these microscopic relationships may influence soil health, ecosystem recovery, and the long term sustainability of agriculture. Microplastics are tiny plastic fragments smaller than five millimeters that enter farmland ...

Key Takeaways More than 60% of Americans said they would probably or definitely avoid riding in a driverless car. About 85% said widespread AVs would cause job losses in ride-hailing, ridesharing and delivery work. More than 46% said AVs would widen the income gap (vs about 6% who said it would narrow). The survey found a social and geographic divide: tech-aware, educated groups show strong adoption interest but economic concern, while lower-income and non-metro respondents remain unwilling and skeptical.  While much of the public debate about self-driving cars focuses on safety, a new national study from the University of California San Diego ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a drug-and-supplement combination therapy that is capable of reducing the harmful effects of senescent cells – also known as "zombie cells" – in diabetic kidney disease. In eBioMedicine, a publication of The Lancet, the team reported that the combination of the cancer drug dasatanib and a naturally occurring substance known as quercetin decreased inflammation and boosted protective factors in the kidney. Diabetic kidney disease affects more than 12 million people in the U.S. and is the leading cause ...

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have made an important discovery about how genetic mutations in breast cancer patients can interact and drive resistance to certain drugs called CDK4/6 inhibitors. This finding, published in Nature, suggests a new strategy for predicting and preventing resistance to specific therapies based on the tumor’s genetic profile.  “This represents a major advance in understanding and predicting cancer behavior in response to treatment,” says physician-scientist Pedram Razavi, MD, PhD, who led the study with physician-scientist Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD. The study’s first author ...

A cross-disciplinary team at Rice University has developed a new type of electric heating element — one that looks less like a traditional metal coil and more like a high-performance thread. In a study published in Small, the researchers demonstrated that wires and fabrics made from carbon nanotube fibers (CNTFs) can deliver substantially more heating power per unit mass than conventional metal-alloy heaters when placed directly in flowing gases. The findings point to a potential new pathway for electrifying industrial heating, a critical but technically challenging step toward reducing carbon emissions. “Electrifying industrial heat is one of the most important, and most difficult, ...

Highlights: Improving the gap between your biological age and your actual age is associated with a lower risk of stroke and better brain health. The study involved 250,000 people. Researchers measured 18 biomarkers in their blood to determine their biological age. A subset of people also had brain scans. People who improved the gap between their biological and chronological ages during the study were 23% less likely to have a stroke afterward than those who did not. The study does not prove that improving the age gap is the cause of the lower risk of stroke and brain health improvements. It only shows an association. Researchers say eating a healthy diet, ...

When you get better at a skill—recognizing a familiar face in a crowd, spotting a typo at a glance, or anticipating the next move in a game—sensory neurons in your brain become more coordinated, sharing information rather than acting more independently. That’s the conclusion of a new study by researchers at the University of Rochester and its Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, published in Science, which challenges a long-held assumption in neuroscience that learning improves efficiency ...

After decades of intense research, surprises in the realm of semiconductors – materials used in microchips to control electrical currents – are few and far between. But with a pair of published papers, materials engineers at Stanford University debut a promising approach to using a well-studied semiconductor to improve infrared light-emitting diodes and sensors. They say the approach could lead to smaller, sleeker, and less expensive infrared technologies for environmental, medical, and industrial uses. “We taught an old dog new tricks,” ...

Scientists led by a physicist at the University of Oregon have taken a major step in solving an enduring mystery that we encounter every time we look through a window or stare at a phone screen. For centuries, scientists have studied how and why glass forms from a molten state into a rigid, solid material, while still maintaining an amorphous or disordered internal structure like a liquid. UO physicist Eric Corwin and a team of current and former students have now created on a computer the first “ideal ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – The “hygiene hypothesis” suggests exposure to diverse types of microbes may protect against developing diseases caused by allergens, but a new Cornell University study in mice reveals that adults’ exposure to diverse microbes and allergens may in fact worsen certain allergic conditions. “Our data suggests that it’s important to think about how we go through the world and protect ourselves from exposure to microbes, because depending on your condition, if you’re moving from a clean to a dirty environment, or dirty to clean environment, you might have a different response in terms of developing allergic ...

Forest damage in Europe caused by wildfires, storms and bark beetle outbreaks is projected to increase compared to recent decades under all analysed climate scenarios, according to a new international study, published in the scientific journal Science, with contributions from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).    Even in a scenario with warming limited to roughly 2°C, annually disturbed forest area could rise from about 180,000 to roughly 216,000 hectares per year by the end of the century, compared to the already unprecedented ...

According to a new genomic study of Australia’s koala populations, rapid demographic rebound may be able to restore once-lost genetic variation and drive recombination in ways that re-establish long-term evolutionary potential in previously bottlenecked populations. Population bottlenecks can lead to evolutionary dead ends by eroding genetic diversity and intensifying inbreeding. Over time, these genetic repercussions can reduce fertility, survival, and resilience to environmental change, driving a so-called “extinction ...

Genetically altered astrocytes that express chimeric antigen receptors offer a promising immunotherapy system capable of clearing accumulations of amyloid-β in the brains of mice – a hallmark pathological feature of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia in aging populations worldwide, is marked by a distinctive pathological cascade: amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques accumulate in the brain, triggering harmful changes in tau proteins, which may ultimately drive widespread neurodegeneration. ...

A unique Rubisco subunit from the hornwort plant carries a built-in extension that enables the enzyme to cluster into carbon-concentrating structures like algae, according to a new study – an innovation that successfully triggered similar condensates when introduced into Arabidopsis plants. The findings reveal a novel and evolutionarily independent solution for Rubisco condensation in land plants and open the door for engineering similar systems in agricultural crops to potentially boost nutrient efficiency and yield. Rubisco, or ribulose-1,5-biphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, is the central enzyme responsible for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, but it also reacts with ...

Across Europe, climate-driven forest disturbances, such as wildfires and insect outbreaks, are expected to increase over the next century, according to a new large-scale modeling study, substantially altering forested landscapes continent-wide. Global forests are increasingly shaped by climate-driven disturbances, such as wildfires, storms, and insect outbreaks, resulting in large pulses of tree mortality. These events can have profound impacts on forest landscapes and biodiversity with long-lasting environmental and socio-economic ...

The new generation of Alzheimer’s disease drugs — the first proven to change the course of the disease — typically extend independent living for patients by 10 months. Called monoclonal antibodies, they reduce the accumulations of a harmful protein, amyloid, in the brain and require high-dose, once- or twice-monthly infusions of the medication. Now, to reduce the frequency of treatment and potentially improve the efficacy of an anti-amyloid therapy, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have engineered a new cellular immunotherapy that requires just ...

An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable molecular trick used by a unique group of land plants, one that could eventually be engineered into crops like wheat and rice to dramatically boost how efficiently they convert sunlight into food. The study, led by researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), Cornell University, and the University of Edinburgh, focuses on a fundamental problem in agriculture: the enzyme responsible for capturing carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis—called Rubisco—is slow and inefficient. "Rubisco is arguably the most important enzyme on the planet because ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – When a species lives in two distinct types of habitats, individuals with traits better suited to each habitat will thrive and reproduce, naturally selecting descendants with those traits. But what about mobile aquatic species that live across a broad range of temperatures and latitudes? New research from Cornell University and the University of Connecticut finds that chromosomal inversions – which occur when a chunk of chromosome containing tens to thousands of genes breaks off, flips and reattaches – help these species maintain genetic differences ...

A new study published in Science is challenging long-held assumptions about how we measure genetic risk in endangered species. Researchers analysed whole genomes from hundreds of koalas, finding that populations previously considered most at risk are now showing early signs of genetic regeneration. Conservation biologists have long assumed that when a population crashes, known as a bottleneck, genetic diversity declines and extinction risk increases through inbreeding and the build-up of harmful mutations. This study provides world-first evidence that the story is more complex. A large-scale ...

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have used a form of artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze anatomical changes in the brain and predict Alzheimer’s disease with nearly 93% accuracy. Their research, published in the journal Neuroscience, also revealed that the anatomical changes, involving loss of brain volume, differ by age and sex. “Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can be difficult because symptoms can be mistaken for normal aging,” says Benjamin Nephew, assistant research professor in the Department ...

Three new studies from Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) highlight the use and advantages of osseointegration (OI) for individuals with an amputation, in some instances challenging prevailing beliefs about which patients would benefit. Osseointegration is a surgical procedure that enables a prosthetic limb to be attached directly to the bone of someone who has had an amputation, eliminating the need for a traditional socket prosthesis. The studies, which looked at safety and outcomes in both femur-level (above-the-knee) and tibia-level (below-the-knee) OI, were presented at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) in New Orleans this week. “Osseointegration ...

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging today announced the launch of Healthspan Horizons, a new initiative designed to address one of the most urgent challenges in modern medicine: how to measure, understand, and extend healthspan—the years of life spent in good health. People are living longer—but too many of those added years are spent managing chronic disease. In other words, healthspan—the years of life lived in good health—hasn’t kept pace. A growing body of evidence suggests that many aspects of ...