Rice University has signed an $8.1 million cooperative agreement to lead the United States Space Force University Consortium/Space Strategic Technology Institute 4 (SSTI), called the Center for Advanced Space Sensing Technologies (CASST) at Rice. Led by David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute, CASST will bring new technologies to advance remote sensing and sensemaking from space.  The research team includes Rice professors and staff Kevin Kelly, Tomasz Tkaczyk, Kaden Hazzard, Mark Jernigan and Vinod Veedu, as well as collaborators ...

LA JOLLA, CA—Every time we feel a gentle tap on the skin, specialized nerve cells convert that physical force into an electrical signal the brain can interpret as touch. While scientists have long known that a protein called PIEZO2 acts as a key sensor for touch, it remained unclear why PIEZO2 is specialized for the localized mechanical forces experienced by sensory neurons, whereas its close relative PIEZO1 responds to broader mechanical stresses such as those generated when cells stretch, as occurs in blood vessels. Now, a new study from Scripps Research ...

  The greatest impacts would be concentrated in the northern lowlands of the country, potentially shifting cocoa cultivation toward higher elevations, especially in the Andean foothills. However, the areas where most of the country’s cocoa is currently produced would maintain favorable climate conditions.  Wild cocoa and agroforestry systems are emerging as complementary solutions: the former as a source of genes to develop more resilient varieties, and the latter to create more stable growing conditions in the face of climate change.  The study was published in the scientific journal Regional ...

DALLAS, March 6, 2026 — At time when trust in health information is at unprecedented risk, the American Heart Association today welcomed new findings from the independent Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania suggesting that Americans consider the Association the most trusted source of public health information after their personal physician. According to the APPC poll, more than 8 in 10 (82%) U.S. adults say they are confident in the American Heart Association ...

A research team has developed a new strategy to improve catalysts used to remove nitrogen oxides from industrial emissions. By using ethanol during catalyst preparation, the scientists significantly enhanced the performance of manganese based carbon catalysts, achieving very high pollution removal efficiency at relatively low temperatures. The findings were published in the journal Sustainable Carbon Materials. Nitrogen oxides, commonly referred to as NOx, are major air pollutants produced during fossil fuel combustion in power plants and heavy industries. These gases contribute to smog formation, acid rain, and environmental and health problems. ...

Soil erosion is widely known for degrading land and reducing agricultural productivity. But new research shows it may also play a far more complex and important role in regulating the global nitrogen cycle, a fundamental process that supports plant growth and ecosystem health. In a new review published in Nitrogen Cycling, researchers synthesized current scientific knowledge on how soil erosion affects nitrogen transport, storage, and transformation in terrestrial ecosystems. The study reveals that erosion can significantly reshape how nitrogen moves through landscapes, with important implications for ...

Scientists have uncovered how different types of biochar influence the movement of water in agricultural soils that contain excessive phosphorus, offering new insights into how farmers can reduce nutrient loss and protect surrounding water bodies. In a new study, researchers investigated how two widely available agricultural biochars affect water infiltration and leakage in phosphorus enriched vegetable soils. The findings suggest that biochar made from rice husks can significantly slow water movement through soil, potentially reducing the risk of phosphorus leaching and improving water retention for crops. Vegetable production systems ...

LA JOLLA (March 6, 2026)—In little moments like when sipping coffee or licking an ice cream cone, it doesn’t seem like your body is pulling off a biological miracle. But it is. That cookie is not you—yet when you put it in your mouth, your body is able to tolerate it and process it without any detriment to your health in a process called oral tolerance. How does the human body make that decision between tolerance and rejection? A study led by Stanford University scientists—including first and co-corresponding author ...

NORMAN, OKLA. – The University of Oklahoma’s Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research recently released a new Sovereign Report titled “Purchased/Referred Care and Cancer: Overview and Options for Tribal Consideration.” Authored by Grace Fox (Seminole), tribal health care policy analyst at the center, the report examines how the Indian Health Service’s Purchased/Referred Care (PRC) program intersects with cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up for eligible tribal citizens. PRC is the program through which the Indian Health Service (IHS) authorizes ...

A newly released compendium, Feminism and COVID-19: How Women Fare in the Face of a Global Crisis, is revealing how women across the world were simultaneously critical for the success of the global COVID-19 response, and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic’s secondary effects, such as lost income, and increased unpaid care work and violence. Book co-editors, Dr. Julia Smith of Simon Fraser University and Dr. Clare Wenham from the London School of Economics, gathered together a unique multidisciplinary and transnational team of authors and experts who examined nine case studies of the COVID-19 response and its global and local impacts on women from Bangladesh, Brazil, ...

Northwestern University engineers have developed the first modular robots with athletic intelligence. They can be combined and recombined in the wild, recover from injury and keep moving no matter what’s thrown at them. Called “legged metamachines,” the creations are made from autonomous, Lego-like modules that snap together into an endless number of configurations. Each module by itself is a complete robot with its own motor, battery and computer. Alone, a module can roll, turn and jump. But the real agility and indestructibility emerges when the modules combine. The study was published today (March 6) in the Proceedings ...

Study finds shared genetic roots of MS across diverse ancestries A new study published in Neurology and led by Queen Mary University of London, has revealed that people of South Asian, African and European ancestry share many of the same genetic risk factors for multiple sclerosis (MS).  This new study is one of the most ancestrally diverse genetic analyses of MS conducted in the UK. MS affects around 150,000 people ...

WASHINGTON—Endocrine Society members elected Joy Wu, M.D., Ph.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif., as its 2027-2028 President. She will serve as President-Elect for a year beginning in June 2026 before becoming President in June 2027. Wu is the Gerald M. Reaven, MD Professor of Endocrinology, Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Vice Chair of Basic Science in the Department of Medicine at Stanford. She is a board-certified endocrinologist ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Pay range transparency laws that are intended to promote pay equity can inadvertently deter women from applying for those positions, thus perpetuating gender gaps in the workforce, according to research from Cornell University. “Across our four studies, we consistently found that women show a stronger preference for jobs with narrower salary ranges compared to men, and that this preference is associated with less assertive negotiation behaviors. In other words, the way these laws are being implemented may be perpetuating the very pay gaps they were designed to close,” said Alice Lee, ...

The electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional materials both have strong potential for technological applications. Researchers have long assumed that they are distinct phenomena, but Illinois Grainger engineers have demonstrated that they share a mathematical language. In an article recently published in Physical Review X, a team in The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign showed how to engineer two-dimensional magnetic systems to obey the same equations as mobile electrons ...

ITHACA, N.Y. – Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like “synergistic leadership,” or “growth-hacking paradigms” may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell University study reveals. Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell introduces the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale (CBSR), a tool designed to measure susceptibility to impressive-but-empty organizational rhetoric. “Corporate bullshit is a specific style of communication that uses confusing, abstract buzzwords in a functionally misleading way,” ...

Local elected officials and community stakeholders gathered on March 5 at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital to learn about Pennington Biomedical Research Center’s Greaux Healthy initiative. Greaux Healthy is an initiative by LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center in partnership with the State of Louisiana focused on preventing and treating childhood obesity in Louisiana. Lake Charles Mayor Marshall Simien, Jr. was onsite to present the group with a proclamation announcing March 5th as “Greaux ...

Neutron stars harbor some of the most extreme environments in the universe: their densities soar to several times those of atomic nuclei, and they possess some of the strongest gravitational fields of any known objects, surpassed only by black holes. First observed in the 1960s, much of the internal composition of neutron stars is still unknown. Scientists are beginning to look to gravitational waves emitted by binary neutron-star inspirals—pairs of mutually orbiting neutron stars—as possible sources ...

New Haven, Conn. — In recent years, rates of childhood obesity have been rising, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimating in 2024 that approximately one in five children and adolescents met the clinical definition of obese. But preventing childhood obesity is a complex undertaking. While encouraging a healthy diet and adequate exercise have long been two strategies for reducing risk of obesity in children, Yale researchers have recently identified a crucial third: lowering parent stress. A research team led by Yale psychologist Rajita Sinha has found that ...

New Haven, Conn. — Physical therapy (PT) is used in the management of many medical conditions. But variation in rates paid by commercial insurers can contribute to high out-of-pocket costs, leading some patients to underuse or stop PT altogether. For many people, that means potentially poor rehabilitation outcomes. In a new study, Yale researchers evaluated commercial payer-negotiated rates for outpatient PT services at a cross-section of hospitals across the United States. They found that costs for PT vary substantially based on location and insurance status. “PT is used in the management of many acute and chronic medical conditions, ...

Magnetic materials in a quantum spin liquid phase are of great interest in the pursuit of exotic state of matter and quantum computation. But in the quantum realm, things are not always what they seem. A recent study, published in Science Advances and co-led by Rice University’s Pengcheng Dai, found that the material cerium magnesium hexalluminate (CeMgAl11O19) was not actually in a quantum spin liquid phase despite evidence suggesting it was.  “The material had been classified as a quantum spin liquid due to two properties: observation of a continuum of states and lack of magnetic ordering,” said Bin Gao, co-first author and a research scientist at ...

East Hanover, NJ – March 6, 2026 – The March 2026 National Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE) report shows that employment of working-aged people with disabilities declined between January and February. While the country braces for the potential economic impact of the bombing campaign in Iran, people with disabilities are experiencing a weakening labor market. nTIDE is issued monthly by Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability. Based on data from today’s BLS Jobs Report and separate nTIDE analysis, the employment-to-population ratio for people with ...

Top award from Society of Surgical Oncology honors physicians, scientists and physician-scientists who have made outstanding contributions to surgical oncology  Recognition highlights Pisters’ outstanding commitment to and leadership within the field  Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was honored today with the Charles M. Balch, M.D., Distinguished Service Award at the Society of ...

“This case underscores the diagnostic value of integrating imaging, histopathology, and immunohistochemistry.” BUFFALO, NY — March 6, 2026 — A new case report was published in Volume 13 of Oncoscienceon February 7, 2026, titled “Massive calcified solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreatic head.”  Led by Faten Limaiem — who is also the corresponding author and affiliated with Hospital Mongi Slim La Marsa in La Marsa, Tunisia — and co-author Mohamed Hajri, the report describes a 31-year-old woman who presented with progressive right-upper ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a potential new strategy to fight back against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, conditions that are linked to the toxic accumulation of Tau and alpha synuclein protein clumps in the brain. The team reports in Nature Communications that tubulin, the building block of microtubules, the cell’s internal ‘railway tracks,’ can stop Tau and alpha synuclein from forming toxic clumps and instead steer them into their normal, healthy roles. “Tau ...