A new study has overcome a long-standing challenge—how to isolate and study elusive HIV-infected cells called authentic reservoir clones (ARCs) that evade the immune system, making the disease difficult to cure. Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Rockefeller University, and collaborating institutions offer a detailed look into these hidden HIV‑harboring cells and show that some may be more vulnerable to immune destruction than previously believed. The findings, published Feb. 24 in Nature, detail how the researchers ...

Global efforts to combat climate change in the last two decades have contributed to considerably cutting carbon emissions, according to a new study conducted primarily by scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom. The participating researchers investigated which climate policies were particularly effective. Reduced emissions have generally been the result of ambitious, i.e., larger and stricter climate policy portfolios. In addition, countries targeting the largest sources of emissions were particularly successful, according to the experts from Heidelberg University, who played a major role in the study. The research findings are based on a statistical analysis ...

Wastewater contains untapped resources that, if reclaimed, could power agriculture, global sanitation, and its own treatment to help us meet UN SDG goals.   This is according to a new Frontiers in Science lead article in which researchers Prof Uwe Schröder, Prof Falk Harnisch, Dr Elizabeth Heidrich, and Dr Deepak Pant examine how microbial electrochemical technologies (METs) can convert organic waste streams into electricity, fuels, fertilizers, and usable water more efficiently. Pilot deployments—from the UK’s Glastonbury Festival to field trials in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa—are demonstrating its ...

Whether it’s redfin pickerel in the Kennebec River or sturgeon in the Great Lakes, nearly one-third of freshwater fish species are facing possible extinction, threatening food supplies, ecosystems and outdoor recreation. As conservationists work to preserve these species, the University of Maine assistant professor Christina Murphy asked herself if there was an easier way to identify threats to fish before they become endangered.  After five years of data collection, programming and testing, Murphy and her colleagues developed a computer model that identifies potential threats to more than 10,000 freshwater species worldwide. Encouragingly, the majority of species accounted for ...

We have known for several decades that the universe is expanding. Scientists use multiple techniques to measure the present-day expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. These methods are internally consistent and based on the same physics, so all observed values of the Hubble constant should agree. But those that come from early-universe datasets disagree with those that come from late-universe datasets. This problem is known as the Hubble tension and is considered to be one of the most significant open questions in cosmology.  Now a team of astrophysicists, cosmologists, and physicists at The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...

With children across the U.S. facing long wait times for medical care due to a shortage of pediatricians, UC San Francisco has launched a medical education program designed to strengthen the pediatric workforce and improve childhood health outcomes. The Pediatric Specialized Training and Advancement to Residency Track (Peds-START) is the only program of its kind in the West and provides early mentorship, individualized training, and a pathway into the UCSF pediatric residency program. Nationwide, there are just 82 pediatricians per 100,000 children, ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2026 — Live music can engage more than just one sense, despite it being an auditory medium. Lighting and visual effects can enhance the listening experience, but it is unclear if they can also affect the impression of the sound. In JASA, published on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America by AIP Publishing, researchers from Germany’s Technical University of Berlin found that the color of a concert hall has an impact on the sound perception of a listener. “Room acoustics perception is multidimensional,” ...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2026 — With increasing cyberattacks and government data breaches, one of the most important devices to keep secure is the one in everyone’s pocket: smartphones. The problem is that it is difficult to check that a smartphone has not been tampered with without the risk of unintentionally damaging the device itself. In AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology developed a way to remotely fingerprint and identify a cellular ...

About The Study: This study found that thyroid cancer overdiagnosis in the U.S. remains substantial, even after accounting for possible increases in true incidence. This finding suggests an opportunity to reduce unnecessary thyroid ultrasonography referrals, particularly for nonpalpable nodules, and to reduce unnecessary diagnoses and treatment-related harms without increasing mortality.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, David O. Francis, MD, MS, email dofrancis@wisc.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.59852) Editor’s ...

About The Study: In this cohort study, dual-eligible and Medicare Advantage-enrolled patients with stroke were less likely to receive postacute care from high-quality skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. Equitable access to high-value postacute care is essential to advancing outcomes for high-need, high-risk patients in the era of value-based care.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Amit Kumar, PhD, MPH, email amleein@icloud.com. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.0095) Editor’s ...

NYU scientists are using light to precisely control how tiny particles organize themselves into crystals.  Their research, published in the Cell Press journal Chem, provides a simple and reversible method for forming crystals that can be used to develop a new generation of adaptable materials. Crystals—from snowflakes and diamonds to the silicon used in electronics—are made up of particles arranged in repeating patterns. To study how crystals form, some scientists use colloidal particles—microscopic spheres suspended in liquid that self-assemble into colloidal crystals. Colloidal particles are also the building blocks for advanced ...

TORONTO -- Integrating AI with advanced robotics to create self-driving labs (SDL) is a promising approach to tackling molecular discovery. A new SDL system, called LUMI-lab, combines large-scale molecular pretraining, active learning, and robotics, and has discovered that brominated lipids, not previously linked to mRNA delivery, enhance the efficiency of getting mRNA inside human cells. The study, led by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, was published today in Cell. LUMI-lab (Large-scale Unsupervised Modeling followed by Iterative experiments), supported by an AC Translation research grant from U of T’s ...

A new study has revealed how tiny imperfections and vibrations inside a promising quantum material could be used to control an unusual quantum effect, opening new possibilities for smaller, faster and more efficient energy-harvesting devices. The international team, led by Professor Dongchen Qi from the QUT School of Chemistry and Physics and Professor Xiao Renshaw Wang from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, studied the mechanism governing the so-called nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE). Unlike classical Hall effect, this quantum version allows alternating electrical signals, like those found in wireless or ambient ...

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 24, 2026 – For the one in three (98 million) Americans living with prediabetes, a surprising fresh fruit pairing may hold promise for heart health. A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that adding one avocado and a cup of mango to your daily routine may help support key markers of cardiovascular health. Adults with prediabetes who enjoyed this combination daily for eight weeks saw improvements in blood vessel function and diastolic ...

A clinical trial by researchers at Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) in Melbourne, Australia, found that a daily serving of peanut butter significantly boosted muscle power in older adults. The findings were recently published in the international peer-reviewed Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle (JCSM). The six-month study, known as the Capacity of Older Individuals after Nut Supplementation (COINS), was led by Dr. Sze-Yen Tan, associate professor and nutrition researcher, at Deakin University’s Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition. It involved 120 adults, ages 66 to 89, who were living independently in ...

“Here, we report profiles of circular RNAs annotated to mitochondrial chromosome, chrM, in young and old cohorts.” BUFFALO, NY — February 24, 2026 — A new research paper was published in Volume 18 of Aging-US on February 10, 2026, titled “Aging-associated mitochondrial circular RNAs.” Led by first author Hyejin Mun from the University of Oklahoma — with corresponding authors Je-Hyun Yoon from the University of Oklahoma and Young-Kook ...

A Dartmouth study challenges the conventional view that the amygdala—the two-sided structure deep in the brain involved in emotion, learning, and decision making—is simply the brain's primitive “fear center,” reflexively driving us to avoid the things we fear, from high places and tight spaces to spiders and large crowds. The researchers report in Nature Communications that the amygdala is far more complex, acting as a sophisticated arbiter to help the brain choose between competing strategies for learning and decision-making. “Historically, the amygdala ...

Initiative is one of multiple philanthropy-driven investments to equip the next generation with brain-healthy strategies. The University of Texas at Dallas has piloted the first-ever Brain Health Prize, a student competition to bring innovative ideas to improve brain health on campus. The winners were announced during a NextGen event kicking off BrainHealth Week 2026, which featured speakers Tessy Ojo, CBE, and Geoff Ling, MD, PhD, as well as a showcase of the top 20 student submissions. University of Texas System regent Christina Melton Crain, ESQ, awarded the inaugural prize. An Award with a Mandate The Brain Health Prize is a peer-to-peer ...

A key characteristic of modern human society is rapid urbanization, a process that can reshape natural environments and disrupt the habitats of many organisms. One widespread byproduct of urbanization is artificial light at night (ALAN), which has become one of the most pervasive human-made environmental disturbances. ALAN can affect animals by changing their physiology, behavior, and geographic distribution. In particular, it disrupts natural day–night cycles, circadian rhythms, predator–prey interactions, and reproduction across a wide range of species. Coastal ecosystems are especially vulnerable to artificial nighttime lighting and intense human activity. Many studies have shown ...

Understanding the connection between behavior and brain cell activity is a major goal of neuroscience. To make progress, neuroscientists often choose simple, transparent lab animals because it’s possible to see all their neurons fluoresce to indicate their electrical activity as the animals behave. But visibility isn’t enough. Precisely tracking each cell’s position and identity as the animals wiggle and warp during their complex movements is a huge challenge. In a new study in eLife, MIT neuroscientists debut three AI-infused tools to solve the problem. “In a live behaving animal, ...

Autophagy is indispensable for maintaining hepatocyte integrity, metabolic homeostasis, and survival. While several autophagy-related proteins have been studied in hepatic physiology, the specific role of Autophagy Related 14 (ATG14) in liver health has remained unclear. A new study published in eGastroenterology provides compelling in vivo evidence that ATG14 is a critical defender against hepatic injury, operating by suppressing multiple regulated cell death pathways.  ATG14 is indispensable for maintaining ...

New York, NY [February 24, 2026] — ChatGPT Health, a widely used consumer artificial intelligence (AI) tool that provides health guidance directly to the public—including advice about how urgently to seek medical care—may fail to direct users appropriately to emergency care in a significant number of serious cases, according to researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The study, fast-tracked in the February 23, 2026 online issue of Nature Medicine [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-026-04297-7], is the first independent safety evaluation of ...

Photos in the Quantum Engineering Lab at U-M Quantum sensors take sensitivity and accuracy to new levels, and even higher levels of precision are possible when quantum entanglement is used to connect them.  The University of Michigan is leading a $9 million project funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research to develop methods for creating entangled networks of quantum sensors. Entanglement is promising for high-precision networking because it links particles through their quantum states, no matter the distance between them. Measuring ...

More than 350,000 chemicals are used worldwide, and many find their way into the ocean through plastic pollution. As plastics accumulate in coastal waters, they continuously leach bioactive additives that can interfere with the chemical cues marine animals rely on to find food, avoid predators, choose habitats and communicate. One such chemical, oleamide, is an industrial lubricant in plastics like polyethylene and polypropylene. As these plastics degrade, oleamide seeps into the water. But it’s not just industrial: oleamide is naturally produced by many organisms and influences sleep in mammals, acts as a pheromone in some marine species, and closely resembles ...

Night lights affect two marine crustaceans differently, helping explain which species will be found in which portion of Tokyo Bay, Japan, according to a study. Artificial light at night can affect the behavior, physiology, and ecological distribution of marine species. Daiki Sato sought to explore the effects of city lights on the ecosystem of Tokyo Bay, one of the world’s most intensely illuminated coastal regions. Sato specifically focused on two closely related nocturnal isopods, Ligia furcata and Ligia laticarpa. ...