The Great Barrier Reef has experienced the largest annual decline in coral cover in two of the three regions since AIMS began monitoring 39 years ago. This was predominantly driven by climate change-induced heat stress leading to coral mortality from the 2024 mass bleaching event, but also by the impacts of cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks. Coral cover dropped over the year: in the northern region (Cape York to Cooktown) by a quarter (from 39.8% to 30%) in the central region (Cooktown to Proserpine) by 13.9% ...

Wastewater often contains a cocktail of organic pollutants, ranging from pesticides to pharmaceutical residues. These are difficult to remove using conventional purification methods. However, a recent doctoral thesis from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) presents a creative method to get rid of them. “We can break down the harmful chemicals in the water using sunlight and small droplets of oil,” said NTNU’s Zygimantas Gricius. “Gricius and his colleagues have studied the purification of industrial wastewater. They looked at the breakdown of naphthenic acids, which can be found in wastewater from ...

NEW YORK, NY, Aug. 5 --Today, the Lupus Research Alliance (LRA), the world’s largest private funder of lupus research, announced the recipients of the 2025 Empowering Lupus Research (ELR) Career Development Award and Postdoctoral Award. These awards support exceptional early-career scientists advancing groundbreaking research to improve outcomes for people living with lupus – and ultimately, to find a cure. This year, five recipients were selected for their innovative studies – from exploring the role of gut bacteria and immune cells to identifying predictors of chronic pain and targeting inflammatory ...

We usually think of satellites as small objects orbiting planets or stars. But in the broader universe, galaxies themselves can have satellites—smaller galaxies bound by gravity that orbit a larger host, carrying with them stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. Most of what we know about satellite galaxies comes from studying the Milky Way and other similarly large galaxies. But a new study led by Dartmouth astronomers broadens that understanding by exploring the satellites of dwarf galaxies—systems less than a tenth the size of the Milky Way. The multi-institutional survey triples the number of dwarf ...

Findings suggest a personalized approach to recommending CPAP machines to patients with obstructive sleep apnea may decrease adverse cardiovascular events. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), where blockages in the airways cause breathing to uncontrollably stop and start during sleep, is a common sleep-related breathing disorder. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines can reduce interrupted sleep for patients with OSA. While CPAP improves symptoms, it has been unclear whether CPAP also reduces the risk of heart disease. A new study by ...

Because their relative isolation encourages speciation, oceanic islands are hotspots of biodiversity. Yet their relatively small size, atypically defenseless animals and plants, and ecological vulnerability to the effects of introduced species has also made them hotspots of extinction. Jairo Patiño, José María Fernández-Palacios and colleagues chronicle every known terrestrial extinction in Macaronesia—an area in the Atlantic Ocean comprising the volcanic archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, the Canaries, and Cabo Verde. The survey uncovered 220 extinctions representing 3.1% of the Macaronesian endemic species, of which ...

One in every three people is expected to have cancer in their lifetime, making it a major health concern for mankind. A crucial indicator of the outcome of cancer is its tumor microsatellite status—whether it is stable or unstable. It refers to how stable the DNA is in tumors with respect to the number of mutations within microsatellites. The tumor microsatellite status has important clinical value because patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) cancers usually have more promising outcomes compared to patients with microsatellite stable tumors. Furthermore, tumors deficient in mismatch repair proteins—these ...

Wireless power transfer (WPT) systems transmit electrical energy from a power source to a load without physical connectors or wires, using electromagnetic fields. This idea goes as far back as the 1890s, when Nikola Tesla famously experimented with wireless energy transmission. Today, WPT systems are widely used to power smartphones, electric toothbrushes, and wireless sensors for the Internet of Things. A typical WPT system has a transmitter coil connected to a power source. This transmitter converts the supplied power into an electromagnetic field, which is received by a receiver coil that ...

Agricultural practices to improve the production of food crops have undergone a drastic transformation in recent years. Owing to the chemical-free production process, organically grown food crops are popular among both consumers and farmers. While greener alternatives to fertilizers have been explored, there remains a critical need for sustainable pest management practices to improve food productivity. Moreover, chemical-based pesticides have the potential to negatively impact the environment, biodiversity, and ecosystems.   To address the lack of natural pest ...

About 56 million years ago, when Earth experienced a dramatic rise in global temperatures, one meat-eating mammal responded in a surprising way: It started eating more bones. That’s the conclusion reached by a Rutgers-led team of researchers, whose recent study of fossil teeth from the extinct predator Dissacus praenuntius reveals how animals adapted to a period of extreme climate change known as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The findings, published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, could help scientists predict how today’s wildlife might respond to modern global warming. “What happened during ...

Visual artists want to protect their work from non-consensual use by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. But most of them do not have the technical know-how or control over the tools needed to do so.  One of the best ways to protect artists’ creative work is to prevent it from ever being seen by “AI crawlers” – the programs that harvest data on the Internet for training generative models.  But most artists don’t have access to the tools that would allow them to take such actions.  And when they do have access, they don’t ...

The possibility of having a tool that facilitates population screening for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is getting closer. A multicenter study involving leading hospitals across Spain, led by Hospital del Mar and its research institute, has confirmed that people with COPD show altered levels of specific metabolites in their blood. This finding may make it possible to use these biomarkers to identify, at an early stage, those likely to have COPD. The study, conducted with researchers from the CIBER Respiratory ...

The University of Bath, in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, has conducted the most extensive growth and maturation study in world football, helping reshape talent development pathways for young players in Scotland. Commissioned by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and completed between January and April 2024, the research, published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, evaluated over 1,000 academy players in the Club Academy Scotland (CAS) system - making it the largest study of its kind examining both relative age and biological maturation. Researchers recorded players’ birth dates, current height and weight, and parental height to project growth and ...

A new study provides the first visual evidence showing that brain circuits in living animals can be activated by ultrasound waves projected into specific patterns (holograms).  Led by scientists at NYU Langone Health and at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the study describes a system that combines sources of ultrasound waves and a fiber scope connected to a camera to visualize in study mice brain targets that are directly activated by the sound. This lays the groundwork, the study authors say, for a new way to treat neurological diseases and mental health disorders from outside of the body. Already, there are applications approved by the Food and Drug ...

NEW YORK, August 5, 2025 — A new study from researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) reveals that extremely simple peptides can mimic a biological process that protects sensitive proteins from environmental stress. The findings, published today in Nature Materials, offer a promising new approach to stabilizing biomolecules like vaccines and therapeutic proteins—potentially without the need for refrigeration. The interdisciplinary study, led by Rein Ulijn, founding director of the CUNY ASRC Nanoscience Initiative and distinguished ...

The simple daily habit of standing up more often may impact heart health for postmenopausal women, according to a new study from University of California San Diego. Researchers reported that women experiencing overweight or obesity who increased daily sit-to-stand movements saw measurable improvements in blood pressure. The findings, published recently in the journal Circulation, suggest that frequently taking short standing breaks, even without increasing intense exercise, may offer a boost to cardiovascular wellness. “Public health messaging urges us to sit less but doesn’t tell us the best ways to do that. Our findings ...

DUBLIN, IRELAND, 5 August 2025 -- In a revealing Genomic Press Interview published today in Brain Medicine, Professor Philip Hyland describes his extraordinary journey from personal struggles with anxiety to becoming one of the world's foremost authorities on posttraumatic stress disorders. The interview illuminates how his groundbreaking research on Complex PTSD fundamentally changed World Health Organization diagnostic criteria, directly impacting how clinicians worldwide assess and treat trauma survivors. From Personal Crisis to Scientific Revolution Professor Hyland's path to scientific prominence began unexpectedly during what he describes as a "tough ...

When it comes to cybersecurity, humans are often seen as the weakest link, but new research suggests that with a little help, people can do a surprisingly effective job at identifying malware.  In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from the University of Waterloo’s Cheriton School of Computer Science teamed up with University of Guelph cybersecurity experts to test how users, ranging from tech novices to experts, can respond to real-time legitimate and malicious software download requests ...

Astronomers have observed an explosion in space that is pushing back against and influencing the baby star which triggered the explosion in the first place. If explosions like this one are common around young stars, then the young stars and their planets are exposed to a harsher environment than previously thought. Stars and their associated planetary systems are formed from the gravitational collapse of molecular clouds in space. As a cloud collapses, it retains its angular momentum, causing it to evolve into a spinning structure known as a protoplanetary disk. Stars and planets form within a protoplanetary disk, ...

For many first-generation Mexican American college graduates, the definition of success includes paying their parents’ bills or even buying them a home. Lifting the social or financial status of their elders is a goal that often defines upward mobility for Latinx millennials, especially the children of immigrants, according to a study by UC Merced sociology Professor Daisy Verduzco Reyes. Reyes, a researcher in the Latina Futures 2050 Lab at UCLA, spent 14 years developing the study, which tracked the life paths of 61 millennials (a demographic defined ...

A University of Queensland-led study has found Australian skinks have evolved molecular armour to stop snake venom from shutting down their muscles. Professor Bryan Fry from UQ’s School of the Environment said revealing exactly how skinks dodge death could inform biomedical approaches to treating snakebite in people. “What we saw in skinks was evolution at its most ingenious,” Professor Fry said. “Australian skinks have evolved tiny changes in a critical muscle receptor, called the nicotinic ...

PeroCycle, an industrial decarbonisation venture advancing closed-loop carbon recycling for steel-making, has appointed Grant Budge as CEO.  The announcement coincides with the opening of a £4m seed round to fund pilot deployment and accelerate commercial growth.   Grant brings 30 years of experience leading carbon capture projects and advising on decarbonisation across energy and heavy industry. He has raised significant public and private funding and led delivery of large-scale CCS infrastructure. His appointment signals a new phase of commercial growth for PeroCycle as it advances towards pilot-scale deployment. “PeroCycle ...

University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka-led research has found stress-controlling brain cells switch on and off in a steady rhythm about once every hour – even when nothing stressful is happening.           Senior author Associate Professor Karl Iremonger, of Otago’s Department of Physiology and Centre for Neuroendocrinology, says these rhythms shape activity patterns and alertness. “These bursts of brain cell activity seem to act like a natural ‘wake-up’ ...

Stimulating the vagus nerve with a device attached to the outer ear can help make compassion meditation training more effective at boosting people’s capacity for self-kindness and mindfulness, finds a new study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. The study, published in Psychological Medicine, adds to evidence of the potential benefits of stimulating this key nerve that connects the brain with major organs in the chest and abdomen. The vagus nerve plays a crucial role in the 'rest-and-digest' (parasympathetic) ...

Unlike most cells in the human body, neurons—the functional cells of our nervous system—cannot typically replace themselves with healthy copies after being damaged.  Rather, after an injury from something like a stroke, concussion or neurodegenerative disease, neurons and their axons, fiber-like projections that relay electrical signals, are far more likely to degrade than regenerate.  But new research from the University of Michigan opens new ways to think about neurodegeneration that could help protect patients against that degradation ...