Plastic pollution has become a major global environmental concern as modern societies rely increasingly on plastic products. Much of this plastic waste eventually reaches the ocean, with rivers acting as the main transport routes from urban, agricultural, and other landscapes, thereby affecting the lives of marine organisms. Over time, larger plastic items break down into smaller pieces known as microplastics (less than 5 millimeters) and mesoplastics (between 5 and 25 millimeters). These particles can spread ...

Real-time and early detection of minute changes in the functioning of the cardiovascular system is crucial for managing critically ill patients, such as newborns and older adults, and can significantly affect their outcomes. Heart rate variability (HRV) is the minute, yet normal, fluctuations between consecutive heartbeats, usually measured through the electrocardiogram (ECG). HRV is a well-established, quantitative, and noninvasive measure for assessing autonomic nervous system activity. However, despite its high value for patient monitoring ...

A study published in the journal PeerJ, conducted by a researcher from the Institute of Systematics, Evolution and Biodiversity (ISYEB) at the French National Museum of Natural History, in collaboration with a researcher from James Cook University in Australia, reveals that domestic animals are involved in the transport of an invasive flatworm species in France. Terrestrial flatworms (Platyhelminthes) are invasive species that primarily spread through the transport of plants, largely driven by human activities. However, one question remained unanswered: how do these very slow-moving animals manage to colonize ...

The increased size of, and lesser blood supply to, a key brain structure in patients with Long COVID tracks with known blood markers of Alzheimer’s disease and greater levels of dementia, a new study finds.  Led by NYU Langone Health researchers, the study concerns the choroid plexus (CP), a network of blood vessels lined by cells that produce cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain and forms a protective barrier between the fluid and the bloodstream. The CP regulates immune system responses (inflammation) and waste clearance in the brain. Past studies show that the COVID-19 virus can damage the cells lining ...

When running a fever during infection, we often feel chills, which prompt us to take action to warm ourselves, such as turning on a heater or adding layers of clothing. Increased body temperature helps inhibit pathogen growth and boosts immune cell activity. A recent rat study by a Nagoya University team identified the neural mechanism underlying chills, a cold sensation that supports the body's response to infection. The findings were published in The Journal of Physiology. When mammals are infected, their immune system produces a pyrogenic ...

Benefits to society from coral reefs, including fisheries, tourism, coastal protection, pharmaceutical discovery and more, are estimated at about $9.8 trillion per year. For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian researchers estimated the extent of coral bleaching worldwide during a global marine heatwave, finding that half of the world’s reefs experienced significant damage. Another heatwave began in 2023 and is ongoing. The analysis was published today in Nature Communications. It takes two partners to make a coral: a tiny animal related to a jellyfish that secretes the hard ...

Artificial intelligence could help doctors detect serious heart valve disease years earlier, potentially saving thousands of lives, a new study suggests. Researchers led by the University of Cambridge analysed heart sounds from nearly 1,800 patients using an AI algorithm trained to recognise valve disease, a condition that often goes undiagnosed until it becomes life-threatening. The AI correctly identified 98% of patients with severe aortic stenosis, the most common form of valve disease requiring surgery, and 94% of those with severe mitral regurgitation, where the heart valve doesn’t fully close and blood leaks backward across the valve. The technology, which works with ...

Our circadian clocks play a crucial role in our health and well-being, keeping our 24-hour biological cycles in sync with light and dark exposure. Disruptions in the rhythms of these clocks, as with jet lag and daylight saving time, can throw our daily functioning out of sync. University of California San Diego scientists are now getting closer to understanding how these clocks operate at their core. In the journal Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, researchers based in UC San Diego’s Department of Molecular Biology (School of Biological Sciences) and Center for Circadian Biology, along with national ...

Oxidative stress is a direct consequence of an excess in the body of so-called “free radicals” – reactive, unstable molecules that contain oxygen. Free radicals are normal metabolic by-products and also help to relay signals in the body. In turn, oxidative stress (an overload of these molecules) can be caused by lifestyle, environmental and biological factors such as smoking, high alcohol consumption, poor diet, stress, pollution, radiation, industrial chemicals, and chronic inflammation. When this occurs, it creates an imbalance ...

Life on Earth started in the oceans. Sometime around 475 million years ago, plants began making their way from the water onto the land, and it took another 100 million years for the first animals with backbones to join them. But for tens of millions of years, these early land-dwelling creatures only ate their fellow animals, rather than grazing on greenery. In a new paper in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists describe the 307-million-year-old fossil of one of the earliest known land vertebrates that evolved the ability to eat plants. “This is one of the oldest known four-legged animals to eat its veggies,” ...

A new study has shown that mindfulness helps patients to relax during an endoscopy, allowing doctors to carry out detailed examinations without the need for sedation or general anaesthesia. Researchers say mindfulness, combined with advanced endoscopy techniques and state-of-the-art digital technology, enables procedures to be done to a higher standard in awake patients than is currently possible under general anaesthesia or sedation. This means there is less chance of cancers being missed, with fewer associated complications, and less cost ...

10 February 2026 – London – The Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences today announced the Finalists for the 2026 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists in the United Kingdom. The Awards recognise scientific advances by UK researchers across Life Sciences, Chemical Sciences, and Physical Sciences & Engineering.   On Tuesday, 24 February, Professor Deborah Prentice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, will reveal the three 2026 Laureates at a gala dinner and awards ceremony in London. Now in its ninth year, each Blavatnik Awards Laureate will receive an unrestricted £100,000 (US$135,000) prize, while the remaining six Finalists ...

On the Great Plains of North America, bison were hunted for thousands of years before populations collapsed to near extinction due to overexploitation in the late 1800s. But long before then, bison hunters used various strategies and different types of sites, sometimes switching between sites. Now, researchers sought to understand why hunting stopped when bison continued to be present at the Bergstrom site in central Montana, where bison were hunted intermittently for around 700 years before the site fell into disuse. The results were published in Frontiers in Conservation Science. “We found that bison ...

Parents of children with medical complexity report that they rely on various medical devices for essential care of their kids at home, yet the processes of obtaining and using these devices are inadequate and often pose safety risks, according to a study from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Findings from interviews with parents were published in the journal Pediatrics. “Prior research has linked challenges with home device use to emergency ...

A research team from Nanjing University has developed an in-situ on-device electrochemical intercalation method to manipulate the structural and electronic properties of MoS2 thin flakes, resulting in a robust nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) observable at room temperature. By intercalating cetyltrimethylammonium ions (CTA+) into the van der Waals (vdW) gap of MoS2, the inversion symmetry is broken and NLHE can be observed up to 300 K. This work provides a new approach for regulating NLHE and symmetry in 2D materials ...

(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — They’re all around us: sensors and satellites, radars and drones. These tools form vast  remote sensing networks that collect data on the climate, the ground, the air, and the water. This information is immensely useful for research, conservation, and disaster preparedness. But, according to an interdisciplinary group of Earth science researchers in a paper led by Casey O’Hara of UC Santa Barbara, we’re only just scratching the surface of understanding just how beneficial Earth Science Information can be. “We’re trying to use the information we gather from all this instrumentation ...

A scientific breakthrough not only promises faster testing for antimicrobial resistance, but also an ethical solution to the controversial issue of using rodents in research. University of Exeter scientists have created the world’s first genetically engineered wax moths – a development which could both accelerate the fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and significantly reduce the need for mice and rats in infection research. The study, published in Nature Lab Animal, outlines how Exeter researchers have developed powerful new genetic tools for the greater wax moth (Galleria Mellonella). This small insect is increasingly recognised as a cost-effective, ethically ...

New York, NY [February 9, 2026] — Medical artificial intelligence (AI) is often described as a way to make patient care safer by helping clinicians manage information. A new study by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and collaborators confronts a critical vulnerability: when a medical lie enters the system, can AI pass it on as if it were true? Analyzing more than a million prompts across nine leading language models, the researchers found that these systems can repeat false medical claims when they appear in realistic hospital notes or social-media health discussions. The findings, published in the February 9 online issue of The Lancet Digital Health ...

Study of over 540,000 people suggests people with obesity are 70% more likely to be hospitalised or die from an infectious disease; people with the most severe obesity face three times the risk. Applying these risk estimates to global data suggests obesity was linked to one in ten infection-related global deaths in 2023.However, authors highlight estimates of the global impact should be interpreted with caution. The proportion of infection-related deaths associated with obesity differed between countries, with roughly one in six deaths in the UK an done in four deaths in the US. Authors warn that given rising global ...

Just over one in 10 deaths from a wide range of infectious diseases can be attributed to obesity worldwide, finds a major new study led by a University College London (UCL) researcher. People with obesity face a 70% higher risk of hospitalisation or death from an infection than those of a healthy weight, according to the findings published in The Lancet. Obesity can increase the risk posed by many different infectious diseases, from flu and Covid-19 to stomach bugs and urinary tract infections, and the researchers found that the higher the BMI, the greater the risk. The study’s lead author, Professor Mika Kivimaki (UCL Faculty ...

The legalisation of cannabis and the start of retail sales of the drug in the US are linked to both a rise in its recreational use and concurrent use of tobacco, as well as a fall in sole tobacco use, finds an analysis of health behavioural data, published online in the journal Tobacco Control.   These patterns were evident in higher risk groups, such as those with poor mental health, as well as those with historically lower levels of recreational cannabis use, such as older people and those with higher levels of education, the findings indicate.   Concurrent use of tobacco and cannabis is associated with an increased risk of developing ...

Harbour porpoises “buzz” less when boats and ships and nearby – suggesting a drop in feeding and socialising, new research shows. Scientists used underwater microphones in a narrow strait called the Little Belt (Denmark) then mapped porpoise sounds against vessel traffic. Buzzes (short sounds used when porpoises feed and socialise) reduced by up to 45% during busiest vessel traffic periods. Harbour porpoises are small but have a rapid metabolism and eat almost constantly – so reduced activity could ...

When we think about heat travelling through a material, we typically picture diffusive transport, a process that transfers heat from high-temperature to low-temperature as particles and molecules bump into each other, losing kinetic energy in the process. But in some materials heat can travel in a different way, flowing like water in a pipeline that – at least in principle – can be forced to move in a direction of choice. This second regime is called hydrodynamic heat transport. Heat conduction is mediated by movement of phonons, which are collective excitations of atoms in solids, ...

Survivors of firearm injuries often experience long-term physical and functional health challenges that extend beyond the initial trauma, according to Rutgers Health researchers. Their study, published in the Journal of Urban Health, examined the physical health needs, health care access and barriers to care for firearm injury survivors. The work was done in collaboration with street outreach workers from Cure4Camden, a Camden, N.J., community-based violence intervention program. “Survivors of ...

With the rapid advancement of AI affecting all sectors of society, Columbia Engineering announced a new Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (MSAI) program that combines core AI courses in computer science and engineering with a broad range of concentrations, through a partnership with many Columbia schools, to provide students with specialized domain-specific training.  This new program comes at a time of unprecedented demand for talented graduates with solid foundational skills in AI and the ability ...