A six-year analysis of marine microbes in coastal California waters has overturned long-held assumptions about how the ocean's smallest organisms interact.  Researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that marine microbes interact in ways that benefit one another more often than they eat each other or compete. The team also found that periods of elevated ocean temperatures, usually times of stress for these microbes because of a dearth of nutrients, actually resulted in even more of these positive interactions. The study was published Jan. 21 in the ISME Journal: Multidisciplinary Journal of Microbial ...

New research into the impact of climate change on snow sports provides recommendations to increase the climate-resilience of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The University of Waterloo led the study, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Toronto, and it builds on their influential work to determine reliable locations for the Winter Games as global warming accelerates. The team analyzed the 93 potential host locations where the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated the necessary winter sports infrastructure was already in place. They found that if countries continue with current climate policies, only 52 would remain climate-reliable ...

Amid a surprisingly severe flu season and a Covid-19 resurgence, those highly contagious respiratory illnesses are drawing the largest share of media coverage and public attention. But it is also the season for another respiratory illness, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, and RSV cases are “elevated in many areas of the country,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). RSV data for the week of Jan. 5, 2026, show an increase both in emergency department visits and hospital admissions for children up to age four, according to CIDRAP, the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, at the University of Minnesota. And the Pan American ...

A new, fast and easy test could revolutionize blood transfusions—giving blood centers and hospitals a reliable way to monitor the quality of red blood cells after they sit for weeks in storage.  The project is a collaboration between engineers and medical researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Colorado Anschutz. The team’s device hasn’t yet been approved for use. But the group hopes that it could one day help the United States better manage its precious blood supply. The entire test also fits on a single chip, said Xiaoyun ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 MINNEAPOLIS — Having an ischemic stroke during pregnancy or three months after pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack or second stroke, heart disease and depression later in life. The new study is published on January 21, 2026, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke. It occurs when a clot or blockage reduces blood flow to the brain, depriving it of oxygen and nutrients. The study also found that female participants who had ...

Atmospheric scientist Amanda Staudt will join the American Meteorological Society (AMS), the professional society for weather, water, and climate sciences and services, as its new executive director in March 2026.  Staudt, who previously served as senior director of Climate Crossroads at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, has decades of experience helping translate science into informed decision-making in collaboration with major scientific organizations. As executive director, Staudt ...

While many people binge-watch their favorite shows, binge-watching addiction is associated with loneliness, according to a study published January 21, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Xiaofan Yue and Xin Cui from Huangshan University in China. COVID-19 drove many people indoors and onto the couch, driving concerns about mental health, especially as people were also isolated and distressed. Now, while many people have resumed daily activities, some people binge-watch to the point of addiction—experiencing obsession, ...

Ancient people transported a wild relative of the common potato across the southwestern U.S., likely expanding the range of the species, according to a study published January 21, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Lisbeth Louderback from the University of Utah, U.S., and colleagues. This research provides new evidence that Indigenous people may have put the species on a path to domestication, while creating a unique cultural element in the Four Corners region. The Four Corners potato, Solanum jamesii, is a small, resilient, ...

Researchers investigating the effectiveness of outdoor ads promoting climate change awareness and action found that a general message of climate emergency awareness received more QR code scans compared to a more-specific campaign focusing on sustainable fashion, according to a study published January 21, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Maxwell Boykoff from the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, and colleagues.  Advertising can help shape public opinion, for better or worse. Climate advocates and climate change activists are now using advertisements to promote their messages to the public. In this study, Boykoff and colleagues ...

A new medical large language model (LLM) achieved over 91 percent accuracy in identifying female participants diagnosed with major depressive disorder after analyzing a short WhatsApp audio recording where participants described their week, according to a study published January 21, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Victor H. O. Otani, from Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medical Sciences and Infinity Doctors Inc., Brazil, and colleagues. Major depressive disorder is a mental health condition that affects over 280 million people globally, and early detection can be critical for timely treatment. Here, Otani and colleagues used machine learning ...

Overuse of antibiotics has accelerated the development of bacterial resistance to conventional drugs, a global health crisis projected to result in more than 10 million deaths annually by 2050. The multidrug-resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa accounts for approximately one-fifth of hospital-acquired pneumonia cases and is associated with severe illness and increased mortality. Nitric oxide is a therapeutic gas that researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass ...

An artificial intelligence-based tool can predict the medical trajectories of individual premature newborns from blood samples collected soon after they are born, a Stanford Medicine-led study has shown. The research, which will publish Jan. 21 in Science Translational Medicine, provides a new understanding of the complexity of premature birth, not as a single problem defined by early arrival but as several distinct conditions. The study is a step toward predicting and preventing complications of prematurity using treatments ...

Starchy residue preserved in ancient stone tools may rewrite the story of crop domestication in the American Southwest, according to new research led by the University of Utah. The Four Corners Potato (Solanum jamesii) has been an important cultural, nutritional and medicinal food staple across the Colorado Plateau for millennia. Despite its long history and contemporary use, the extent to which Indigenous people domesticated S. jamesii remains unknown. Previous genetic research has shown that the tubers were transported and intentionally cultivated far beyond its natural range—two crucial steps toward ...

New study shows that cancer damages its own DNA by pushing key genes to work too hard. Researchers found that the most powerful genetic “on switches” in cancer cells, called super-enhancers, drive unusually intense gene activity. That high gear creates stress on the DNA and can cause dangerous breaks. Cancer cells can often repair this damage, but the process is frequently error-prone, the repeated cycle of breaking and repairing can make these regions more prone to accumulating mutations over time. In short, the same mechanisms that help cancer grow quickly may also make its DNA more fragile, helping explain how tumors continue to evolve and, in some cases, ...

A remarkable prehistoric hammer made from elephant bone, dating back nearly half a million years ago, has been uncovered in southern England and analysed by archaeologists from UCL and the Natural History Museum, London. It is the oldest elephant bone tool to ever be discovered in Europe and provides an extraordinary glimpse into the ingenuity of the early human ancestors who made it. The research, published in Science Advances, describes the roughly 500,000-year-old tool, and reveals the unexpectedly sophisticated craftsmanship and skill of the species responsible for making it, likely either early neanderthals or another species known as Homo heidelbergensis. ...

Researchers have deciphered the diet of an important nomadic people in Eastern European history. By analyzing dental calculus, they have provided the first direct evidence that the diet of the Scythians included milk from various ruminants and horses. For centuries, the Scythians have been regarded as a nomadic horsemen people who roamed the vast steppes of Eurasia during the Iron Age. This image remains powerful to this day. In recent years, however, scientific research has challenged this simplified narrative. It shows that the so-called “Scythians” were not a uniform group, but consisted of a diverse, multi-ethnic population with different geographical origins. ...

Some of the UK’s most popular takeaway dishes contain more salt than their labels indicate, with some meals containing more than recommended daily guidelines, new research has shown. Scientists found 47% of takeaway foods that were analysed in the survey exceeded their declared salt levels, with curries, pasta and pizza dishes often failing to match what their menus claim. While not all restaurants provided salt levels on their menus, some meals from independent restaurants in Reading contained more than 10g of salt in a single portion. The UK ...

Scientists from the CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and the S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences have collaborated to develop a new class of highly precise filtration membranes. The research, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could significantly reduce energy consumption and enable large-scale water reuse in industry. Everyday industrial processes, like purifying medicines, cleaning textile dyes, and processing food, rely ...

Sweeping winds of vaporized metals have been found in a massive cloud that dimmed the light of a star for nearly nine months. This discovery, made with the Gemini South telescope in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab, offers a rare glimpse into the chaotic and dynamic processes still shaping planetary systems long after their formation. In September 2024, a star 3000 light-years away suddenly became 40 times dimmer than usual, and remained so until May 2025. The star, J0705+0612, is similar to our Sun, so its ...

Old diseases return as settlement pushes into the Amazon rainforest (Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Human activity continues to expand ever further into wild areas, throwing ecology out of balance. But what begins as an environmental issue often evolves into a human problem. Researchers at UC Santa Barbara investigated how changes in land use may be driving the growth in human yellow fever cases in the Amazon basin. Their analysis, published in Biology Letters, reveals that the growing border between forested and urban areas is causing an alarming uptick in cases. “Yellow fever is increasingly infecting humans ...

A unique study exploring popular ways to “self‑gift” has found that ordering a takeaway meal is a preferred treat regardless of whether people have had a good or a bad day at work. Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology and led by Dr Suzanna Forwood and Dr Annelie Harvey of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), the research is the first to compare how likely people are to choose a range of food and non-food options for both self-reward and self-consolation. The study involved 280 UK participants who were randomly assigned to imagine either a good, bad or average day at work. They were then asked to report ...

MADISON — All celestial bodies — planets, suns, even entire galaxies — produce magnetic fields, affecting such cosmic processes as the solar wind, high-energy particle transport, and galaxy formation. Small-scale magnetic fields are generally turbulent and chaotic, yet large-scale fields are organized, a phenomenon that plasma astrophysicists have tried explaining for decades, unsuccessfully.  In a paper published January 21 in Nature, a team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have run complex numerical ...

Bird retinas function without oxygen – solving a centuries-old biological mystery Neural tissue normally dies quickly without oxygen. Yet bird retinas − among the most energy-demanding tissues in the animal kingdom – function permanently without it. This may be relevant in future treatment of stroke patients. In a study published today in Nature, an international research team reveals how birds have solved a biological paradox. The researchers show that the inner parts of the bird retina operate under chronic oxygen deprivation, relying instead on anaerobic energy production. At the same time, the study overturns ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that by taking away the option to end a pregnancy, abortion bans force pregnant people to take on the substantially increased health risks associated with continued pregnancy. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Maria W. Steenland, SD, email msteenla@umd.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.54793) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...

About The Study: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of interpersonal violence experienced globally by transgender and gender-diverse adults, a high prevalence was found. There is an urgent need to address such violence through implementation of evidence-based violence prevention and response strategies across settings. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Erin E. Cooney, PhD, email ecooney2@jhmi.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52953) Editor’s Note: Please see the article ...