In a world where evolutionary biology often gets boiled down to simplistic hierarchies of "primitive" and "advanced" species, a new book by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) biologist Kevin Omland offers a fresh, genomics-informed perspective. Understanding the Tree of Life, published by Cambridge University Press as part of its "Understanding Life" series, invites readers to rethink evolution as a continuous, branching process where all organisms—from humans to platypuses to bacteria—are interconnected cousins sharing a common ancestry. Omland draws on decades of research ...

More than a decade of acoustic recordings of grouper grunts are providing new insight into how sound can be used to monitor and manage vulnerable fish populations. The research by Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute focused on the red hind (Epinephelus guttatus), a commercially important Caribbean grouper species.   Red hind are protogynous hermaphrodites, starting life as females and later becoming males. Each winter, they travel more than 30 kilometers to offshore sites to spawn under the full moon in large gatherings. Males use rhythmic, low-frequency sounds ...

Ensuring the structural safety of bridges, tunnels, construction machinery, and other critical infrastructure is essential for public safety, economic stability, and environmental protection. Traditional inspection methods—mainly relying on manual visual checks—are time-consuming, expensive, and often dangerous, especially in high-altitude, underwater, or hazardous environments. They are also prone to human error and often fail to detect early-stage defects, leading to unexpected structural failures and costly accidents. Intelligent inspection ...

Background and objectives Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are non-coding RNAs characterized by a strictly closed-loop covalent structure. They are abundantly detected in various cells due to their conserved nature. Studies have reported their potential association with chronic liver disease (CLD), including hepatitis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), with possible roles as diagnostic and prognostic markers. This study aimed to analyze the potential use of serum-derived hsa_circ_101555 as a diagnostic tool for CLD without HCC, and to compare it with other ...

Colorectal cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death, with incidence rising among older adults. One of the most pressing clinical questions has been whether elderly patients should receive oxaliplatin, a standard component of adjuvant chemotherapy that is known to cause serious side effects. To address this, Dr. Jun Woo Bong from Korea University Guro Hospital, with Dr. Hwamin Lee, and Dr. Seogsong Jeong from Korea University College of Medicine, conducted a large-scale population study, which was made available online on August 6, 2025, in JAMA ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Research led by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine explores the ways brain cells communicate, revealing fresh insight into the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. A multidisciplinary team used advanced imaging and computational modeling to analyze the “crosstalk” between neurons and their supporting glial cells in the human brain. This approach highlights the brain’s interconnected cellular network. “By mapping these cell interactions at the molecular level, we identified key pathways ...

Scientists regularly uncork fresh insights into beer and wine — even though they were invented thousands of years ago. Four recent discoveries go beyond buzz and bouquet, diving into the haziness and gluten content of beer as well as the astringent taste and potential health impacts of wine. Sip back and learn more about research published in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Reporters can request free access to these papers by emailing newsroom@acs.org. Yeast extracts add haze to lager beer. Hazy beer styles are becoming more popular, ...

Evanston, Ill. – September 10, 2025 – The Massage Therapy Foundation (MTF) announces the award of a research grant to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The grant will support a three-year study entitled Myofascial Release Therapy in Irritable Bowel Syndrome led by Primary Investigators Maria Mascarenhas, MBBS and Alain J. Benitez, MD, MSTR. The study aims to evaluate the impact of abdominal myofascial release (MFR)—a gentle, manual therapy—on symptom relief, quality of life, and bowel function in adolescents with constipation-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-C). This randomized controlled study pairs MFR with ...

The growing global demand for clean energy and rising concerns over climate change have intensified the search for sustainable alternatives. Hydrogen emerges as a promising solution due to its high energy density and zero-carbon emissions. Among production methods, alkaline water electrolysis is efficient and environmentally friendly; however, its dependence on freshwater limits large-scale implementation. Seawater electrolysis offers a practical alternative by tapping Earth’s abundant water resources but contains high chloride concentrations that accelerate catalyst corrosion and reduce efficiency, posing a significant ...

Richmond Hill, Canada, 18 September 2025 – On August 31 at midnight, a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar Province near the Pakistan border. Despite being moderate in magnitude, the earthquake caused extensive destruction and claimed more than 3,500 lives, including many women and children. Now, the United Nations University (UNU) scientists attribute this significant death toll to Afghanistan's decades of conflict and instability, and the nation's increasing diplomatic isolation following the Taliban takeover in 2021.  A new damage assessment of the August 31 earthquake by the United ...

An international group of four leading researchers and scientists have been shortlisted for the prestigious $75,000 Panmure House Prize.   This year’s competition attracted entries from across North America, Europe, and beyond, reflecting the global reach of the award.   Now in its fifth year, the Prize is named after Panmure House, the former Edinburgh residence of 18th-century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith. It is regarded as one of the largest awards in financial research and is dedicated to advancing understanding of long-term ...

Genetic editing holds promise to treat incurable diseases, but the most popular method — CRISPR — sometimes does more harm than good. A new study from University of California San Diego and Yale University researchers highlights an innovative alternative approach that may be safer. CRISPR — short for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats — is a method of genetic editing that uses RNA and bacterial proteins to edit DNA. It was adapted from a method used by bacteria as an immune defense against the DNA of viruses. When the method is used by scientists to edit human DNA, however, there ...

Astronomers have used observatories around the world, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid, just six years out from the spacecraft’s encounter with 1998 KY26. “We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says ...

You have 20 minutes of spare time, but the new episode of your favorite podcast is a few minutes longer. No problem; you can increase the listening speed and fit in those extra minutes. Phew. What happens when you listen to speech at a different speed? Neuroscientists thought that your brain may turn up its processing speed as well. But it turns out that at least the auditory part of the brain keeps “listening” or clocking in at a fixed time. That is the key finding of new research out today in Nature Neuroscience. The research was led by Sam Norman-Haignere, PhD, ...

A team led by Christian Baumgartner of the Institute of Health Care Engineering at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) has developed a highly detailed digital twin of the A549 lung cancer cell line. The twin builds on bioelectric processes and calcium dynamics in the cell interior in innovative new ways. Calcium is a vital component in the survival of biological cells. However, if the concentration of calcium within a cell is too high, this can cause cell death – which is what makes the element such an interesting factor in cancer treatment. Created under the DigLungCancer project, the cell model builds on an earlier model from 2021 – ...

An exoplanet orbiting a dwarf star 124 light-years from Earth made headlines around the world in April 2025. Researchers at the University of Cambridge reported that planet K2-18b could be a marine world with a deep, global ocean teeming with life. However, a study now shows that so-called sub-Neptunes such as K2-18b are highly unlikely to be worlds dominated by water and that conditions there are far from conducive to life. “Water on planets is much more limited than previously believed,” notes ...

New research has shown hospital patients could reduce the carbon footprint and saturated fat content of their selected meals by up to almost a third – if the weekly menu featuring the same dishes is cleverly reorganised. The study, led by the University of Bristol, features in a special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, which sets out innovative ways to help make the UK’s food healthier, fairer, and more sustainable. The researchers developed a cunning way to redesign weekly set menus so healthier, greener dishes weren’t competing so much with typically more popular, less healthy options, boosting ...

Leuven, September 18, 2025 – VIB researchers and colleagues have discovered a mechanism through which melanoma cells adapt and switch between two major proliferative and invasive states, revealing promising new targets for cancer therapy. The study, published in Nature Metabolism, reveals that alterations in iron metabolism and organelle crosstalk are central to melanoma cell plasticity—a key factor in tumor progression and resistance to treatment. The changing face of melanoma Melanoma, one of the most aggressive skin cancers, often exhibits a remarkable ability to change its phenotype, enabling it to evade therapies and metastasize. While ...

Spintronics devices will be key to realizing faster and more energy-efficient computers. To give us a better understanding of how to make them, a Kobe University team now showed how different manufacturing techniques influence the material properties of a key component. Electronic devices could be made more efficient and faster if electrons could carry more information at once. This is the basic idea behind spintronics, where researchers try to use the electrons’ spin in addition to charge in data storage, processing and sensor devices to significantly improve our computers. ...

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg have made light-powered gears on a micrometer scale. This paves the way for the smallest on-chip motors in history, which can fit inside a strand of hair. Gears are everywhere – from clocks and cars to robots and wind turbines. For more than 30 years, researchers have been trying to create even smaller gears in order to construct micro-engines. But progress stalled at 0.1 millimetres, as it was not possible to build the drive trains needed to make them move any smaller. Researchers from Gothenburg University, among others, have now broken through this barrier by ditching ...

A study of migratory hoverflies on a North Sea oil rig has revealed their vital role as long-distance pollen transporters.    Researchers studied 121 marmalade hoverflies that landed on an oil rig in the Britannia oil field, 200km off the coast of Scotland. Pollen was found on 92% of the hoverflies and – with no vegetation on the rig, and no land nearby – this shows they can transport pollen over great distances, potentially linking plant populations that are hundreds of kilometres apart. The hoverflies ...

Philadelphia, September 18, 2025 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) demonstrated how a multifaceted intervention approach significantly improved the rate of dental varnish applications to help strengthen tooth enamel and prevent decay. The results exceeded the goal for the study, and improvements were consistent across insurance plans, race and ethnicity, providing an important framework for keeping teeth healthy. The findings were published today in the journal Pediatrics. Dental fluoride varnish is a safe and effective procedure ...

The world of cells is surprisingly noisy. Each cell carries unique genetic information, but when we try to measure cellular activity, signals can be lost or blurred, and differences between experiments can further obscure the data. These challenges have made it difficult for researchers to capture the true behavior of cells, especially when studying rare cell types or subtle changes that appear in the early stages of disease. Take single-cell RNA sequencing as an example. It is a powerful technique for studying gene expression at the individual cell level, yet often encounters significant challenges due to two main types of noise: technical noise and batch noise. Technical ...

In a milestone for Southeast Asia’s healthcare sector, Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH), MOH Holdings Pte Ltd (MOHH), and the Centre for Sustainable Medicine (CoSM) at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine) have released its first-ever comprehensive national emissions report for Singapore’s healthcare sector, and the first comprehensive study across Asia. The NUS-MOH study demonstrates that Singapore’s healthcare system is 18%[1] more sustainable ...

QUT scientists create material to turn waste heat into clean power QUT researchers have developed a new material that achieves record-high thermoelectric performance, paving the way for more efficient conversion of waste heat into clean electricity. The study, published in Energy & Environmental Science, found that adding manganese to silver copper telluride made it the most efficient material of its kind. The research team, led by Professor Zhi-Gang Chen and Dr Xiao-Lei Shi from QUT’s School of Chemistry ...