A new one-step, water- acid- and alkali-free method for extracting high-purity lithium from spodumene ore has the potential to transform critical metal processing and enhance renewable energy supply chains. This study is set to be published in Science Advances Oct. 3, 2025. As the demand for lithium continues to rise, particularly for use in electric cars, smartphones and power storage, current extraction methods are struggling to keep pace. Extracting lithium from salty water is a lengthy process, and traditional methods that use heat and chemicals ...

Nashville, TN – COMBINEDBrain, a leader in advancing translational neuroscience research, and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), one of the nation's premier academic health centers, are excited to announce a strategic partnership to establish a cutting-edge biorepository for pediatric central nervous system (CNS) tissue and biofluids. This collaborative effort, led by MUSC’s Dr. Ramin Eskandari and COMBINEDBrain’s Dr. Anna Pfalzer, aims to accelerate the development of treatments for neurological diseases and significantly aid drug companies in biomarker discovery and therapeutic development. The biorepository will house ...

Public water systems in the U.S. were far less likely to report suspiciously rounded lead levels after the Flint, Michigan water crisis drew national outrage and federal scrutiny, according to new research led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  The study, published as the first article in the latest issue of American Economic Review: Insights, introduces new statistical methods to distinguish between natural rounding and potential “threshold manipulation” in reported figures. “Existing ...

National security officials are "overwhelmingly overconfident," which hinders their ability to accurately assess uncertainty, according to new research by a Dartmouth government professor. When they thought statements had a 90% chance of being true, the statements were only true about 60% of the time, according to the study.  The findings are published in the Texas National Security Review. About 1,900 national security officials from more than 40 NATO allies and partners were surveyed on the uncertainty of current and future states of the world, and delivered a total of 60,000 assessments. ...

The Second World Congress on Targeting Extracellular Vesicles (EVs) is scheduled for 15–16 October 2025 in Valencia, Spain. This landmark event, co-organized by the World Mitochondria Society and the International Society of Microbiota, will spotlight the rapidly evolving science where mitochondrial biology and microbiome research intersect via extracellular vesicles.  Under the theme “Bridging Two Frontiers: Mitochondria & Microbiota”, this edition aims to accelerate scientific discovery and clinical translation by bringing together world leaders in EV biology, mitochondrial medicine, microbiota research, and biotechnology. Extracellular ...

A University of Arizona research team will receive nearly $2.7 million from the NIH's Common Fund Venture Program to advance next-generation imaging technologies that allow deeper, clearer views inside the body without the need for invasive procedures. The U of A team, led by Florian Willomitzer in the James C. Wyant College of Optical Sciences and Dr. Clara Curiel-Lewandrowski in the U of A Comprehensive Cancer Center, is one of only four groups nationwide to receive funding ...

URBANA, Ill. – The U.S. has traditionally been an agricultural powerhouse with a healthy trade surplus. But global dynamics are changing due to a confluence of political and economic factors. U.S. agricultural imports now exceed exports, and the trade deficit is projected to worsen in the coming years. In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Texas Tech University discuss recent developments affecting the U.S. trade in row crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and cotton. “For most of ...

A team of scientists has found that biochar made from an aggressive invasive plant can protect rice from two modern pollutants that threaten global food security: nanoplastics and cadmium. The study, published in Biochar, reveals how biochar biofilters derived from Mikania micrantha, an invasive vine spreading across Asia, can reduce the combined toxicity of these contaminants by regulating plant metabolism and strengthening rice’s natural defense systems. Nanoplastics, the tiny fragments of degraded plastics, and cadmium, a persistent heavy metal, frequently coexist in agricultural ...

Rice University has named 10 graduate students as recipients of the 2025-26 Chevron Energy Graduate Fellowships, a program created through a partnership between the Rice Sustainability Institute and Chevron. Each fellow receives a $10,000 award to support research advancing scalable energy innovations that reduce emissions, accelerate low-carbon technologies and improve the reliability and efficiency of current and future energy systems. The fellowship program, launched last year, reflects a shared commitment ...

Researchers have unveiled a surprising new way that soil microbes can use sunlight energy — even after the lights go out. A team from Kunming University of Science and Technology and the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a “bio-photovoltage soil-microbe battery” that can capture, store, and release solar energy to power the breakdown of antibiotic pollutants in the dark. The study, published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes, shows that common soil bacteria known as Bacillus megaterium can partner with iron minerals to form a living biofilm that behaves like a rechargeable geochemical capacitor. When exposed to light, the iron-bacteria film ...

A new study published in Science Advances about centuries-old horse and donkey bones, unearthed in Jamestown, Virginia, is rewriting the story of how these animals first arrived in North America. While written records from the earliest English explorers show that horses were among the animals brought to Virginia, the new zooarchaeological analysis of animal remains found at Jamestown is the first to show that colonists also brought donkeys to the New World. The study also reveals a dark ending to these equids in the colony: The horses and donkeys were likely butchered and eaten during Jamestown’s infamous winter of starvation. “There ...

MIAMI (Oct. 7, 2025) – As drones become increasingly common in U.S. skies – delivering packages, inspecting bridges, even monitoring crops – the danger of cyberattacks has grown too. A drone hijacked by hackers could suddenly veer off course, speed up, stall in midair, or crash. Once compromised, the machine is useless, often left as little more than expensive junk. Florida International University researchers have found a way to fight back. At the IEEE International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, FIU computer scientists unveiled SHIELD, a defensive system that can detect and neutralize ...

From viral videos to debates over new products, ideas move faster than ever in today’s digital age. Mehmet Aktas, an associate professor of data science and analytics, is leading National Science Foundation-funded research that looks into how those ideas spread, evolve, and shape communities. Funded through a collaborative NSF grant, Aktas is working with colleagues from Georgia State University and Georgia Gwinnett College to explore new ways of modeling information diffusion. Aktas’s project studies how information flows within networks of people. Traditional approaches treat communication like a chain of one-to-one interactions, ...

As renewable energy technologies advance, researchers aim to make solar power more efficient, affordable, and durable. Scientists from Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, in collaboration with international partners, have achieved one of the highest efficiencies ever reported for fully inorganic perovskite solar cells. They have also demonstrated for the first time that these cells can operate stably for hundreds of hours, approaching the reliability of commercial silicon solar cells. “Perovskite solar cells are one of the fastest-growing solar technologies in the world – they can be lightweight, thin-film, and flexible, and most importantly, they are ...

Researchers led by Aurore Perrault at Concordia University, Canada and Valeria Kebets at McGill University, Canada, have used a complex data-driven analysis to uncover relationships among multiple aspects of sleep and individual variation in health, cognition, and lifestyle. Published on October 7th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, the study reveals five sleep-biopsychosocial profiles and their associated patterns of functional connectivity among brain-regions. Most studies of sleep focus on a single aspect, such as duration, and examine how it relates to a ...

NORMAN, Okla. – Marmar Moussa, an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science and Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, has received a distinguished U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER award to develop advanced computational tools that could transform how scientists study disease at the cellular level, particularly in cancer and tissue remodeling. Moussa will lead a five-year project to create advanced algorithms that combine molecular profiling ...

Paul N. Staats, MD, a nationally recognized expert in cytopathology and gynecologic pathology, has been appointed Chair of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Department of Pathology, effective September 29. Paul N. Staats, MD, a nationally recognized expert in cytopathology and gynecologic pathology, has been appointed Chair of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Department of Pathology, effective September 29. He steps into his permanent role overseeing an UMSOM department of 35 faculty, 16 residents, and three fellows, that provides clinical services to University ...

There are relatively few snow leopards in the world, and it has likely been that way for a long time, a new study indicates. This situation increases their risk of extinction in a changing environment. The Stanford-led research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found very low genetic diversity among the elusive big cats, who have an estimated population of less than 8,000. They are also highly specialized to their habitat in the arid, mountainous regions of 12 Asian countries, including Russia, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Tibet. “Snow ...

Rotavirus causes severe dehydrating diarrhea in infants and young children, contributing to more than 128,500 deaths per year globally despite widespread vaccination efforts. Although rotavirus is more prevalent in developing countries, declining vaccination uptake in the United States has resulted in increasing cases in recent years. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified a key step that enables rotavirus to infect cells. The researchers found that disabling the process in tissue culture ...

We have all been in that situation: the moving boxes are large and heavy, but we are determined to carry them all in one trip, even if that means we can’t see where we’re going. In the tropics, some leaf-cutter ants face a similar challenge: carrying a load that is several times their body weight. To make matters even more difficult, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama recently discovered that carrying oversized weights may create “blind spots” when leafcutter ants transport ...

Gabrielle Tayac, Associate Professor, History and Art History, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS), received funding for the project: “INCL: Indigenous America 250 Community Engagement PHASE 2.” This project supports Interpretation and Education for the Indigenous America 250 HRS, a collection of programs and initiatives focused on providing interpretation and education about Indigenous American history and culture. Tayac will identify five sites for optimal interpretation and educational products in line with the data sovereignty findings. She will review materials produced in Phase 1 reports in consultation with National Park Service officials and ...

Audra Parker, Professor and Elementary Education (ELED) Academic Program Coordinator, College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), received funding for: “Elementary Education Program Professional Development School (PDS).” The partnership engages seven elementary schools in three pathways to partnership—collaborative inquiry, clinical practices, and partner schools—each of which supports field hours and internship students in the elementary teacher preparation program. This mutually beneficial partnership simultaneously ...

(Auburn, AL) For millions of years, a fragment of ice and dust drifted between the stars—like a sealed bottle cast into the cosmic ocean. This summer, that bottle finally washed ashore in our solar system and was designated 3I/ATLAS, only the third known interstellar comet. When Auburn University scientists pointed NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory toward it, they made a remarkable find: the first detection of hydroxyl (OH) gas from this object, a chemical fingerprint of water. Swift’s space-based telescope could spot the faint ultraviolet glow that ground observatories can’t see—because, ...

Quentin Sanders, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), received funding for: “Fused Filament Fabrication of Customized Continuous Fiber Physical Activity Enabling Prostheses for Children with Lower Extremity Amputation.” The long-term goal of the work is to make high-performance prosthetic limbs more affordable, accessible, and tailored to the needs of active children. To make progress towards this goal Dr. Sanders and his collaborators have three objectives ...

Researchers have developed a new class of nontoxic, biodegradable solid lubricants that can be used to facilitate seed dispersal using modern farming equipment, with the goal of replacing existing lubricants that pose human and environmental toxicity concerns. The researchers have also developed an analytical model that can be used to evaluate candidate materials for future lubricant technologies. Modern farming makes use of various machines to accurately and efficiently plant seeds in the ground. However, it can be difficult to prevent the seeds from jamming in these machines. To keep the seeds flowing smoothly, farmers use solid lubricants that prevent the seeds ...