Saitama, Japan: Plants lack nerves, yet they can sensitively detect touch from other organisms. In the Venus flytrap, highly sensitive sensory hairs act as tactile sensing organs; when touched twice in quick succession, they initiate the closure cascade that captures prey. However, the molecular identity of the touch sensor has remained unclear. Assistant Professor Hiraku Suda and Professor Masatsugu Toyota at Saitama University, Saitama, Japan, together with colleagues and in collaboration with the research group of Professor Mitsuyasu Hasebe at the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Okazaki, Japan, have revealed that an ion channel named DmMSL10, enriched at the ...

Reducing industrial animal use can help to shrink our carbon footprint and boost health—but doing so means we need nutritious meat alternatives that are also tasty and affordable.   This is according to a new Frontiers in Science article in which researchers reveal how hybrid foods, which combine proteins from different sources, could be part of the solution.   The researchers say that by using combinations of different proteins from plants, fungi, insects, microbial fermentation, and cultivated meat, we could create ...

The interior of the mysterious far side of the moon may be colder than the side constantly facing Earth, suggests a new analysis of rock samples co-led by a UCL (University College London) and Peking University researcher. The study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, looked at fragments of rock and soil scooped up by China’s Chang’e 6 spacecraft last year from a vast crater on the far side of the moon. The research team confirmed previous findings that the rock sample was about 2.8 billion years old, and analysed the chemical make-up of its minerals to estimate ...

Income inequality in society has been linked to structural changes in the brains of children who go on to experience poorer mental health. A King’s College London study is the first to reveal how an unequal distribution of wealth in society is associated with altered connections and reduced surface area in the brains of children. Published in Nature Mental Health today, the research also linked these changes with poorer mental health outcomes. Despite evidence that individual wealth impacts brain development, this is the first time societal inequality has been linked to changes in ...

***SUMMARY YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK***: https://youtu.be/eNjkmeJ-lvE Summary: “Mind reading” evokes images of futuristic scanners, but a study published in Nature Neuroscience demonstrates that a simple video may be enough. Using machine learning techniques, a team at the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal, showed that mice’s facial movements reflect their hidden thoughts. According to the authors, this discovery could offer unprecedented insight into brain function, but also signals a need to consider safeguards for mental privacy. It’s easy to read emotions on people’s ...

Çağan Şekercioğlu was an ambitious, but perhaps naive graduate student when, 26 years ago, he embarked on a simple data-compilation project that would soon evolve into a massive career-defining achievement. With the help of countless students and volunteers, the University of Utah conservation biologist has finally released BIRDBASE, an encyclopedic dataset of traits covering all the bird species recognized by the world’s four major avian taxonomies. Described this week in a study published in the journal Scientific Data, the dataset covers 78 ecological traits, including ...

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have developed a powerful new data analysis method named COOKIE-Pro (Covalent Occupancy Kinetic Enrichment via Proteomics) that provides a comprehensive, unbiased view of how a class of drugs, called covalent inhibitors, interacts with proteins throughout the cell. This innovative technique, detailed in Nature Communications, promises to accelerate the design of more effective and safer therapeutics by precisely measuring both the binding strength and reaction speed of these drugs against thousands of potential targets simultaneously. “Covalent inhibitors, which ...

Magic mushrooms may not be the answer to postpartum depression, new research from the University of California, Davis suggests.  In a first-of-its-kind study appearing in Nature Communications, an interdisciplinary team from the university’s Institute for Psychedelics and Neurotherapeutics (IPN) dosed mouse mothers with psilocybin and found that the drug amplified anxiety and depressive-like symptoms associated with perinatal mood disorders — mental health conditions that can ...

When a patient enters the emergency department in critical condition, doctors must quickly run through a crucial list of questions: Does the patient have an infection? If so, is it bacterial or viral? Do they require treatment? Can the patient recover at home safely or do they need to be hospitalized? Even when an infection is diagnosed, the treatment plan isn’t always clear. Some sepsis patients, for instance, recover well with steroid treatment, while others react poorly and their condition declines. But clues ...

Egg whites may be perfect for a health-conscious breakfast, but egg yolks turned out to be the key ingredient for cultivating bird embryonic stem cells (ESCs) in the lab. Using a growing medium of egg yolk along with a few other key factors, a USC Stem Cell-led team of scientists has succeeded in deriving and maintaining authentic ESCs from chickens and seven other bird species. These bird ESCs hold tremendous promise for applications ranging from studying embryonic development to producing lab-grown poultry to reviving endangered or even extinct birds. The study appears today in Nature Biotechnology. “A true embryonic ...

The introduction of work requirements for certain adults enrolled in the US health insurance program Medicaid has so far failed to boost insurance coverage or employment rates, finds a study published by The BMJ today. It shows that health insurance coverage and employment did not increase after Georgia implemented Medicaid expansion with work requirements. Work requirements are due to be rolled out across the US in 2026 as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Georgia was the first state to expand Medicaid with work requirements under the Pathways to Coverage program in 2023, but little is ...

Prescribing the biologic drug sotatercept alongside standard treatment for the most severe form of pulmonary hypertension significantly reduces the likelihood of worsening disease when added within the first year after diagnosis, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Within the first year of receiving a pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) diagnosis, patients who took sotatercept in addition to standard-of-care therapy reduced the risk experiencing deterioration in health — such as less ability to exercise, worsening symptoms and unplanned hospitalizations ...

A new commentary paper in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, published by Oxford University Press, argues that recent cuts to the National Institutes of Health, including about $2 billion in terminated research grants and a $783 million cut to research funding linked to diversity and inclusion initiatives, will have a dramatically negative effect on efforts to combat tobacco usage and health disparities in the United States. The health and economic burdens of commercial nicotine and tobacco use are high, contributing to about 480,000 premature US deaths ...

One-third of our lives is spent sleeping, yet 30 to 40 percent of adults are reported to experience some form of insomnia. Japan in particular has the lowest sleep duration among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, falling at one hour below average. Public health research has identified long commutes, noise, and light pollution from densely populated living environments as factors that impair sleep. While such metropolitan housing offers advantages in commuting time, its livability is far less than the suburbs. To find a balance between convenience and sleep, urban architecture research, which examines the relationship between housing location, ...

A honeybee hive, with its large stores of pollen, wax, and honey, is like a fortress guarding treasure: with strong defenses, but a bonanza for enemies that can overcome those. More than 30 parasites of honeybees are known, spanning protists, viruses, bacteria, fungi, and arthropods – and this number keeps growing. As a result, beekeepers are always on the lookout for new ways to protect their precious hives. A team of researchers from the US suspected that a rich new source of ecofriendly treatments for bee diseases might be hiding ...

A breakthrough study at The University of Queensland has discovered a hidden dangerous feature in the Black Mamba one of the most venomous snakes in the world. Professor Bryan Fry from UQ’s School of the Environment said the study revealed  the venoms of three species of mamba were far more neurologically complex than previously thought, explaining why antivenoms were sometimes ineffective. “The Black Mamba, Western Green Mamba and Jamesons Mamba snakes aren’t just using one form of chemical weapon, they’re launching a coordinated attack at 2 different points in the nervous system,” Professor Fry said. “If you’re bitten by 3 out of ...

Adding biochar to farmland soils is widely promoted as a climate-friendly practice, but its impact on greenhouse gas emissions can vary. A new study finds that pairing biochar with biogas slurry, a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer from biogas production, can reshape soil microbial communities and significantly alter emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and methane (CH₄). Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences conducted controlled soil column experiments to test how different levels of biochar addition perform ...

Reservoirs are lifelines for drinking water, food production, and economic growth. But a new study warns that these crucial ecosystems are increasingly under threat from toxic heavy metals—and that urgent, innovative action is needed to safeguard both human health and the environment. Researchers from Northeast Agricultural University, together with international collaborators, have published the most comprehensive review to date of heavy metal pollution in reservoirs, outlining its sources, risks, and promising solutions. The findings, published in Agricultural Ecology and Environment, ...

summary To boost solar water splitting efficiency, researchers used quantum molecular dynamics to track how charge carriers (polarons) stabilize in the NaTaO3 photocatalyst, a process previously hidden from experiments. They discovered that positive hole polarons stabilize strongly and rapidly (~70 meV in 50 fs) driven by the elongation of oxygen-tantalum (O-Ta) bonds, while electron stabilization is insignificant. This time-resolved, atomistic understanding provides crucial guidelines for rationally engineering O-Ta bond dynamics to create high-performance solar fuel catalysts. Researchers used quantum-chemical molecular dynamics simulations to visualize the ultrafast ...

In a lush revelation from the forest floor, a new study published in Carbon Research (as an Open Access Rapid Communication) shows that mosses, those quiet, green carpet-weavers beneath our feet, are climate champions in their own right. Led by Dr. Zhe Wang from the China-Croatia “Belt and Road” Joint Laboratory on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, CAS Key Laboratory of Mountain Ecological Restoration and Bioresource Utilization, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Shanghai Normal University, alongside Dr. Weikai Bao, also ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Citizen science has allowed regular citizens to participate in data collection as well as expanded biodiversity monitoring. Yet many datasets are still limited to the coverage of certain regions and habitats in particular seasons. In bird research, for example, traditional point‑count surveys often have strict rules regarding the location, timing, and spacing between observation points, making it challenging for citizen volunteers to participate casually. This inspired Masumi Hisano, formerly of Kyoto University and now at Hiroshima University, to try a more flexible approach by conducting counts whenever and wherever possible, as part of his daily routines. As someone ...

SAN FRANCISCO, September 29, 2025 — A new clinical trial report finds that stereotactic radiation therapy offers long-term survival outcomes comparable to surgery for patients with small, early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Patients in the study who received radiation also reported fewer side effects after treatment. The STARS trial (NCT02357992) is the first to report ten-year clinical outcomes from a prospective comparison of stereotactic radiation and surgical resection for operable NSCLC. Findings will be presented ...

Deaths due to illicit ketamine use have increased twenty-fold since 2015 – but these deaths are increasingly occurring in complex polydrug settings, raising doubts over whether single-substance drug policies can reduce harms. Analysis by King’s College London, with the University of Hertfordshire and Manchester Metropolitan University, of coroner’s reports in England, Wales and Northern Ireland between 1999 and 2024 found there were 696 deaths with detections of illicit ketamine between 1999 and 2024.  It represents the most detailed ...

A common but often undiagnosed genetic condition may be causing delays in type 2 diabetes diagnoses and increasing the risk of serious complications for thousands of Black and South Asian men in the UK - and potentially millions worldwide. The new study is conducted by the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and funded through a Wellcome Discovery Award. It has found around one in seven Black and one in 63 South Asian men in the UK carry a genetic variant known as G6PD deficiency. Men ...

In July 2024, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Calama, Chile, damaging buildings and causing power outages. The country has endured violent earthquakes, including the most powerful recorded in history: a 9.5-magnitude “megathrust” event that struck central Chile in 1960, causing a tsunami and killing between 1,000 to 6,000 people. However, the Calama quake was different from the megathrust quakes that are usually associated with the most destructive events in Chile and around the world. Megathrust earthquakes occur at relatively shallow depths. ...