Chemists at the University of Osaka developed a method using allylatrane compounds to produce the anti-diastereomer of alpha-oxy carbonyl reactions in significantly higher yields than classical approaches - a result with direct applications for pharmaceutical synthesis. The work appears in Nature Communications.

Fires across Alaska warm the planet through permafrost carbon release, while Canada fires produce net cooling via snowpack albedo, a 19-year Nature Geoscience analysis finds. That balance is expected to reverse as warming reduces snow cover and thaws deeper Arctic soils.

A study across 25 UK salons by researchers from Bath, Cardiff, Oxford, and Southampton finds that hairdressers' long-term client relationships generate measurable influence on sustainability behavior, with 73% of clients saying they would alter haircare routines after eco-tips placed on salon mirrors prompted conversations.

A Virginia Commonwealth University study of 2+ million Swedes, published in Genomic Psychiatry, introduces the concept of 'genetic specificity' - the percentage of a disorder's genetic risk pointing exclusively toward that condition - and finds it ranges from roughly 50% in autism to near zero in depression and anxiety, with major implications for psychiatric classification and treatment.

A Pompeu Fabra University study in Nature Communications identifies tRNA-modifying enzymes activated by the cellular stress response to coronavirus infection as key facilitators of viral protein production, offering a potential therapeutic target for broad-spectrum antiviral drugs that could work against future coronavirus variants before specific treatments are developed.

A University of Washington study using LiDAR and time-lapse photography on Cle Elum Ridge finds forest thinning recovers 12.3 acre-feet of snow water storage per 100 acres on north-facing slopes - equivalent to 15 Olympic swimming pools per square kilometer - offering wildfire managers a dual-benefit tool as climate-driven snowpack decline accelerates.

Korea Institute of Materials Science and Max Planck Institute researchers publish in Acta Materialia an explainable AI framework that predicts how internal defect morphology - not just porosity fraction - affects the mechanical properties of laser powder bed fusion parts, enabling defect-aware process design across steel, aluminum, and titanium alloys.

Paleontologists from CUNY Brooklyn College and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science report the southernmost Purgatorius fossils ever found in Colorado's Denver Basin, recovered using labor-intensive screen-washing of Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary sediments, potentially filling a two-million-year gap in the primate family tree's geographic record.

A free World Water Day webinar on March 18, hosted by Applied Microbiology International, will bring together a Nobel co-laureate and leading development scholar to examine how the global water crisis intersects with gender inequality - and the microbiology that underpins scalable solutions.

Zhen Huang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, argues in ENGINEERING Energy that the global transition to wind and solar power is not merely a fuel swap but a structural transformation requiring new frameworks for energy efficiency, grid security, and electricity pricing - including recognition that abundant 'zero marginal cost' renewable energy makes traditional efficiency metrics obsolete.

Beihang University researchers used deep learning and X-ray micro-CT to characterize 349,000 individual particles from China's Chang'e-6 far-side samples without destroying them, finding irregularly shaped regolith with an internal friction angle of 47.96 degrees - significantly stiffer than near-side soil and presenting new engineering challenges for lunar base construction.

Tsinghua researchers publish in eLight a far-field superresolution imaging method that achieves 2.1x better resolution than the diffraction limit without fluorescent labels or post-processing, using topology-optimized metalens designs that exploit momentum-space superoscillation instead of real-space approaches.

A 10-year field study in Beijing's Tonghui and Qing Rivers, published in Water & Ecology, documents how upgrading a wastewater plant shifted nitrogen-cycling bacteria toward enhanced denitrification and triggered a 70% drop in nitrifier-to-denitrifier ratios, while viral communities maintained stable structure but altered their functional gene expression by up to 40%.

A University of Colorado Anschutz study published in Annals of Neurology finds chronic back pain causes measurable over-activation in the auditory cortex and insula while suppressing regulatory brain regions - changes that Pain Reprocessing Therapy reversed more effectively than placebo or usual care.

Oregon State researchers showed 5-minute news-style videos at different resolutions to study participants and found that low-resolution viewing suppressed attitude change on the video's topic, reduced emotional engagement, and made viewers less likely to seek out related content - even when they recalled the information equally well.

UC Davis plant scientist Arnold Bloom proposes a previously unrecognized biochemical pathway within photorespiration that converts soil nitrogen into proteins, DNA components, and defensive chemicals - reframing a process dismissed as wasteful and pointing toward new strategies for crop development.

The largest global breast cancer analysis to date, published in The Lancet Oncology, projects 3.5 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths annually by 2050, while identifying six modifiable risk factors - including red meat consumption and high BMI - linked to over a quarter of the current disease burden.

A mixed-methods survey of over 2,500 autistic adults and their supporters, published in eClinicalMedicine, identifies educational failure, inadequate transitional support, and inaccessible healthcare as the primary drivers of the threefold to fivefold elevated suicide risk in autistic people.

A study in Nature Communications shows GLP-1 drugs activate potassium channels that relax pericytes - small cells that constrict coronary capillaries during heart attacks - potentially preventing 'no-reflow,' a complication affecting up to half of heart attack patients that sharply raises the risk of death or heart failure within a year.

Molecular data from over 300 published studies reveals that vertebrate biodiversity has been substantially underestimated: on average, every recognized species harbors two genetically distinct cryptic species that look identical but have been evolving separately, often for more than a million years.

NYU Langone orthopedic researchers presented five studies at the 2026 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons meeting questioning standard assumptions: that age disqualifies ACL surgery, that same-day hip fracture surgery always wins, and that infection prophylaxis uniformly helps high-risk patients.

A newly launched peer-reviewed journal makes the case that artificial intelligence could become an essential instrument in addressing the interconnected environmental crises of the 21st century, from satellite-fed climate models to real-time pollution tracking.

A study in AI & Environment combines policy analysis with technical benchmarking to show AI development splitting into three structurally incompatible pathways led by the US, China, and EU - each optimizing for different values and creating growing barriers to global cooperation.

A review in Artificial Intelligence & Environment documents how machine learning models are transforming non-targeted analysis of environmental pollutants - predicting spectral data, inferring molecular structures, and enabling quantification without reference standards for the majority of compounds that lack them.

The American College of Physicians issued updated RSV vaccine guidance: all adults 75+ should receive a protein subunit vaccine, while those 60-74 at elevated risk may consider it. The ACP also confirmed MRI adds limited benefit for dense-breast screening and that metformin fails to treat established long COVID.