For decades, astronomers have struggled to differentiate giant planets from brown dwarfs, a class of objects more massive than planets but too small to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars.  Through a telescope, these cosmic lookalikes can have the overlapping brightness, temperatures and even atmospheric fingerprints. The striking similarity leaves astronomers unsure if they have observed an oversized planet or an undersized star. Now, a Northwestern University-led team has uncovered a crucial clue that separates the two: how fast they spin. In a new study, astrophysicists found the clearest evidence ...

A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in Cell Reports, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung cells and survive infection. The findings challenge long-standing assumptions about PD-L1’s role in the immune system. While cancer therapies work by blocking PD-L1 to boost immune attack on tumors, the new research suggests that ...

Young children who attend nursery get sick more often than those who don’t, but they will go on to have fewer illnesses during early school years, finds a new review of evidence by a group of parent-scientists involving University College London (UCL) researchers. All five authors of the new Clinical Microbiology Reviews paper are parents of young children, who are also researchers or clinicians at UCL, the University of Cambridge, Cornell University and North Middlesex University Hospital. They wanted to understand how often children typically get sick when attending nursery, why they’re so prone to illness, what impact it has on their immune systems, and what ...

WASHINGTON—The Endocrine Society has selected five recipients for its Early Investigator Awards. The Early Investigators Awards were established to help develop early career investigators and recognize their accomplishments in endocrine-related research. Recipients will receive a $1,500 monetary award, complimentary registration and the opportunity to present at ENDO 2026, one year of free membership to the Society, and public recognition of research accomplishments in various Society platforms. The Endocrine Society’s 2026 Early Investigator Award winners are:   Sreekant Avula, M.D., F.A.C.P., of Hennipen ...

Dartmouth researchers have developed a cell phone-based tool that monitors tissue health by using a naturally occurring molecule to measure cellular oxygen levels. The tool could provide a simple and affordable at-home method for detecting disease and making treatment decisions that is superior to current methods, according to a new study in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. "The pulse oximeters used in emergency rooms, ambulances, and home care effectively measure blood oxygen, but that actually doesn't change much until you're basically near death," says Brian ...

Date: March 18, 2026 Guangzhou, China: As global urbanization accelerates and humanity faces climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, cities suffer from deficits in green space and ecological systems. A new commentary in Biological Diversity by Prof. Xiangying Wen (South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Prof. Timothy John Entwisle (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria), and Prof. Hai Ren (South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences) identifies botanical gardens as pivotal to bridging urban human-nature disconnection, with China's urban population at 66% ...

Florida Atlantic University’s Office of Technology Development within the Division of Research has announced the latest recipient of its Innovation Pilot Award Program, furthering the university’s commitment to transforming early-stage research into technologies with societal and commercial impact. Established in 2024, the Innovation Pilot Award Program provides seed funding to FAU researchers to advance innovative ideas, develop prototypes, and generate proof-of-concept data that attract industry partners and external investors. With awards ...

A groundbreaking digital twin brain framework capable of translating an individual's brain connectome into high-fidelity predictions of multitask behavior has been developed by researchers at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Japan, and Tohoku University. The work, published in BME Frontiers, offers a transformative approach to personalized psychiatric care by simulating how unique neurobiology drives complex cognitive and affective functions.   Personalized psychiatry has long sought models that can predict an individual's behavioral and neural responses across multiple functional ...

New UC Riverside-led research suggests Alzheimer’s arises not simply from plaques forming in the brain, as is widely believed, but from one protein interfering with the normal job of another.  For decades, much Alzheimer’s research has focused on the idea that clumps of amyloid beta or a-beta proteins cause the disease. Genetic mutations that increase a-beta are known to trigger early onset Alzheimer’s, reinforcing this view.  Yet thousands of clinical trials aimed at removing a-beta have failed to stop or reverse the disease.  Scientists ...

Infectious diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, and diagnosing bacterial infections remains a challenge in medicine. And doing so reliably is more important than ever, given the increasing frequency of antibiotic resistance. Now, research published in ACS Central Science could help healthcare professionals non-invasively diagnose bacterial infections, using breath-based tests. Initial experiments demonstrated the approach in animals with pneumonia and infections in the bloodstream, muscles and bones.  “In designing this study, we were motivated by a developing trend in ...

For more than a century, heparin has been the go-to anticoagulant to prevent harmful blood clots in blood vessels or the heart from forming or getting larger. However, a major side effect is an increased risk of excessive bleeding, even from minor injuries like small cuts on the skin. In ACS Central Science, researchers report the discovery of a snail-derived compound that blocks clot formation while still preserving bleeding control in mouse models.  Blood clots are natural temporary bandages that ...

Companies invest heavily in breakthrough technologies, from industrial software to AI-powered platforms. Yet many radical innovations fail not because customers reject them, but because sales teams hesitate to promote them. A new study by ESMT Berlin reveals a key psychological barrier behind this hesitation: salespeople’s fear of “losing face” in front of customers.  The study was co-authored by Bianca Schmitz (ESMT), Julian Schmalstieg (Freie Universität Berlin), Olaf Ploetner (ESMT), Andreas Eggert (Freie Universität Berlin), and Johannes Habel (University of Houston). The article ...

The trajectory of base editing has been remarkable, progressing from the laboratory to patient care, treating debilitating or terminal illnesses, in less than a decade. A type of gene editing that makes chemical changes to our DNA, base editing was developed by Alexis Komor, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the University of California San Diego. For all of base editing’s success, it is still a relatively new technology, and researchers like Komor are working to improve its efficiency, while lowering ...

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (03/18/2026) — University of Minnesota Twin Cities researchers working on the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (SuperCDMS) experiment are part of a team who successfully cooled the experiment to its base temperature—the temperature required for the superconducting detectors to become operational, which is hundreds of times colder than outer space. Reaching base temperature marks a major transition for SuperCDMS, from construction and installation to commissioning and science operations. For SuperCDMS, that temperature is thousandths of a degree ...

A team of researchers co-led by the University of California San Diego, University of Michigan, and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at Laboratory of Acoustics of Le Mans University has demonstrated a new way to remotely control how a material behaves — using sound. The findings could lead to the development of protective gear, robotic muscles or medical implants that adjust their stiffness on demand. In a study published in Nature Communications, the team showed for the first ...

A powerful new real-world data platform could transform how scientists predict and understand Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease related dementias (AD/ADRD), reports a new study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and collaborators at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, the School of Nursing as well as the University of Miami and University of Chicago. The project, known as the M3AD Study and Real-World Data Metaplatform, represents one of the most ...

Approximately 43 percent of the world’s population is infected with this bacterium. It can cause chronic inflammation of the stomach lining, lead to gastric ulcers, and is considered a key risk factor for stomach cancer. Standard therapies are primarily based on the antibiotic metronidazole. However, H. pylori is becoming increasingly resistant to it. As a result, ever higher doses and combinations with additional antibiotics are required. The team led by Prof. Stephan A. Sieber, Chair of Organic Chemistry II at the TUM School of ...

DURHAM, N.C. – Alzheimer’s disease affects millions of people worldwide, yet the illness is hardest to catch at the very beginning, when new treatments may work best. In a new study, Duke Health researchers show that a quick, outpatient nasal swab can pick up early biological changes linked to Alzheimer’s, even before thinking and memory problems appear. The study, published March 18 in Nature Communications, used a gentle swab placed high inside the nose to collect nerve and immune cells. When researchers analyzed these cells, they found clear patterns that separated people with early or diagnosed Alzheimer’s from ...

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new type of lipid nanoparticle (LNP) that could one day serve as a universal immunotherapy for cancers that form solid tumors, including common variants such as cancers of the breast, liver and colon. One of the greatest challenges in immunotherapy is the exhaustion of T cells, the white blood cells responsible for detecting and destroying cancer cells. Many tumors produce an enzyme called IDO that dampens immune activity. Over time, exposure to the harsh environment ...

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is difficulty incorporating new information about the world. This can lead patients to struggle with making decisions and, eventually, to lose touch with reality. MIT neuroscientists have now identified a gene mutation that appears to give rise to this type of difficulty. In a study of mice, the researchers found that the mutated gene impairs the function of a brain circuit that is responsible for updating beliefs based on new input. This mutation, in a gene called grin2a, was originally identified in a large-scale screen of patients with schizophrenia. The new study suggests that ...

Proteins, one of the smallest building blocks of life on Earth, hold promise for answering some of biology’s biggest questions. Consisting of amino acids strung together into peptide chains, these molecules perform much of the work inside living cells. While they execute life’s most essential functions with apparent ease, decoding their precise sequence and structure has long been one of biology’s hardest challenges. Now, a team led by bioengineers at Stanford University has developed a novel approach to visualize proteins at unprecedented scale and sensitivity. The work, ...

Researchers at the University of Konstanz have uncovered a new mechanism of sliding friction: resistance to motion that arises without any mechanical contact, driven purely by collective magnetic dynamics. The study shows that friction does not necessarily increase steadily with load, as postulated by Amontons’ law – one of the oldest and most fundamental empirical laws of physics – but can instead exhibit a pronounced maximum when internal magnetic ordering becomes frustrated. For more than three centuries, Amontons’ law has linked friction directly to load, reflecting the everyday experience ...

Researchers at the University of St Andrews have unveiled two breakthrough techniques for chemically recycling and upcycling nitrile‑rubber products, such as disposable gloves, seals, and industrial parts, into new materials that are also capable of capturing carbon dioxide.  The development of sustainable methods for the upcycling of plastic waste is one of the most important challenges in achieving a circular economy and can play a significant role in tackling the climate crisis.   Among ...

Leptomeningeal metastasis occurs when cancer spreads to the thin layers of tissue and fluid that surround the brain and spinal cord  Treatment for leptomeningeal metastasis is limited, and the disease often has poor outcomes  Targeted therapy plus chemotherapy regime is found to be safe and effective in Phase II trial  HOUSTON, MARCH 18, 2026 ― Patients with leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) have historically had few treatment options. ...

Sea ice around Antarctica expanded for several decades until a dramatic decline in 2015. The reasons behind this are revealed by research from the University of Gothenburg. Antarctic sea ice plays a crucial role in the ecosystem and physical environment of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Since the ice reflects the sun's rays and blocks heat exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere, it is critical to our weather and climate. Therefore, we need to understand what affects its extent to improve future climate models and prediction. While Arctic sea ice has been steadily declining since satellite measurements of sea ice began, Antarctic sea ice has exhibited ...