One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or 'super-Jupiter' blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades the star – which sits 3,200 light-years from Earth and is about twice as big as our Sun – had been observed as stable, but at the end of 2024 it faded dramatically. It then remained this way for more than nine months, far longer than is normal for an event like this, sparking confusion among researchers and prompting speculation as to what could have caused such an "extremely rare" phenomenon. Now, in a new study published today in Monthly ...

Embargoed until 2:45 PM PST, February 11, 2026        Study: Discontinuing Antidepressants in Pregnancy Nearly Doubles Risk of Mental Health Emergencies       Las Vegas, NV – Pregnant patients who stopped taking their antidepressant medication during pregnancy were almost twice as likely to experience a mental health emergency compared with pregnant patients who continued taking their prescription, according to new research presented today at ...

WASHINGTON—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI), the leading nonprofit medical society representing invasive and interventional cardiology, is proud to participate in the relaunch of the Congressional Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) Caucus, organized by the PAD Pulse Alliance and hosted by Representatives Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL). The bipartisan event brought together physicians, patient advocates, and lawmakers to discuss current research and data, treatment, and urgent ...

Phase II study evaluates treatment for patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN), a rare, aggressive blood cancer The antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) pivekimab sunirine (PVEK) targets the CD123 antigen, which is overexpressed in BPDCN PVEK monotherapy demonstrated strong responses, enabling ability to proceed with stem cell transplant for high-risk subgroup of patients with BPDCN Seventy-five percent of patients with blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm (BPDCN) who were treated with the antibody-drug conjugate ...

Professor Zhen Zhang's research group at the State Key Laboratory of Bionic Interface Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, proposed and constructed a neuromorphic computing system based on a cascaded van der Waals heterostructure two-dimensional nanofluidic membrane, achieving light-driven electron-ion coupling to simulate neural signal transmission and neuromorphic visual information processing. The article was published as an open access Research Article in CCS Chemistry, the flagship journal of the Chinese ...

In the lush landscapes of tropical agriculture, two waste products—oyster shells from the sea and coconut shells from the trees—are being combined to solve a major headache for farmers: how to turn animal manure into high-quality compost faster and more effectively. A study recently published in Carbon Research reveals that a unique "Ca-modified biochar" can act as a powerful catalyst for the composting process. Developed by a research team at Hainan University, this new material helps transform pig manure and rice straw into stable, nutrient-rich humus, significantly boosting the ...

Researchers have found that most biochar fed to dairy cows survives the digestive process and remains highly stable, meaning it could be applied to fields through manure and act as a long-term carbon storage solution. The findings provide new evidence that livestock systems could play a role in climate change mitigation. The study, recently published in Biochar, investigated what happens to biochar after it passes through the digestive system of cattle. Biochar is a carbon-rich material produced ...

Scientists have uncovered practical strategies that can significantly reduce harmful air pollution from composting while improving the quality of organic fertilizers. The findings, based on a large global meta-analysis, provide new evidence to help farmers, waste managers, and policymakers adopt climate-smart composting practices. The research, published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes, analyzed data from 135 scientific studies and 1,683 experimental observations worldwide. The study evaluated how different ...

A global research collaboration of scientists from McMaster University (Canada), Flinders University (Australia) and Universitätsmedizin Greifswald (Germany) uncovered why a small number of people developed dangerous blood clots after either receiving certain COVID‑19 vaccines or experiencing a natural adenovirus infection, and the answer lies in an unexpected case of misdirected targeting by the immune system. The discovery, published Feb. 12, 2026 in the New England Journal of Medicine, explains ...

NEW YORK, NY--Researchers at Columbia University have found that accidental drug overdose, homicide, and suicide are the leading causes of death among pregnant and postpartum women.  The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.  “Overdose and violence are not typically on our radar when it comes to thinking about approaches to reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, but these events are far more common among pregnant and postpartum women than we think,” says Hooman Azad, who led the study and is a maternal-fetal medicine fellow ...

Even though aging is the largest risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, the majority of research aimed at taming the incurable neurodegenerative motor disease has largely left aging out of the mix.  A group of researchers from around the globe seek to change that.  “Unraveling the intersection of aging and Parkinson’s disease: a collaborative road map for advancing research models,” is now available online at the Nature publication npj Parkinson’s Disease. The vast majority ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System have identified a distinct biological pattern of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), a chronic respiratory illness frequently associated with exposure to airborne toxins, such as wildfire smoke and military burn pits. The research team, led by first author and UC San Diego Assistant Professor of Medicine Xinyu "Steve" Wang, MD, PhD, found that veterans with CRS who were exposed to burn pits and other toxins show a marked increase in sinus ...

University of Houston engineering professor Venkat Selvamanickam has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest professional honors awarded to engineers worldwide. Selvamanickam is the M.D. Anderson Chair Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and director of the Advanced Manufacturing Institute at the UH Cullen College of Engineering. He was recognized for his cutting-edge contributions to industrial-scale advanced manufacturing processes for high-temperature superconductor wires ...

When severe weather strikes, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Office of Water Prediction (OWP) makes critical flood forecasts with the National Water Model. Despite improvements over time, the model’s performance has plateaued in recent years, leaving researchers from the federal government, academia, and private industry searching for a better solution.    Now a new set of software tools, the Next Generation Water Resources Modeling framework, or NextGen, will help develop better predictions. As detailed in a new study led by OWP and the University ...

ANN ARBOR—A University of Michigan study has taken a fine-grained, long-term look at residential-area air pollution and how it relates to deteriorating mobility—and hindered recovery—for older Americans. By pairing and comparing the mobility and disability experiences of 29,790 participants in the national Health and Retirement Study with air quality exposures over 10 years, a team of veteran environmental health researchers found that people with long-term exposures were at greater risk of progressing from no physical function limitations to states of more physical function limitations ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2026 Highlights: New research shows that people who engage in lifelong learning such as reading, writing and learning languages have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and slower cognitive decline. The study does not prove that lifelong learning decreases the risk of Alzheimer’s; it only shows an association. The study looked at 1,939 adults, examining cognitive enrichment including access to atlases and newspapers as children and having library cards in middle age. People in the ...

EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4:00 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2026 MINNEAPOLIS — Having a traumatic brain injury, no matter how serious, is associated with a greater likelihood of qualifying for work disability up to five years later, according to a study published February 11, 2026, in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove cause and effect, it only shows an association. “Traumatic brain injury can result in disability that may ...

Seabird poop could have been used to fertilize Peru's Chincha Valley by at least 1250 CE, potentially facilitating the expansion of its pre-Inca society Article URL: https://plos.io/4renTnm Article title: Seabirds shaped the expansion of pre-Inca society in Peru Author countries: Australia, U.S. Funding:  Funding for archaeological fieldwork and isotopic analyses of maize samples was provided to JLB by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1144087), the Society of Fellows at Boston University, the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program, the National Geographic Young Explorers Grant Program (9347-13), and the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid Research ...

Higher self-reported levels of resilience were linked to lower anxiety and depression and better coping strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published February 11, 2026, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Joseph Anthony Pettit of Bangor University, U.K., and colleagues. Successfully managing and adapting to life’s challenges often requires resilience. Resilience has been linked to coping better with mental ill-health, lower emotional distress following adversity, and faster recovery from such experiences. However, past research has neglected individual profiles of resilience and ...

A male fruit fly in a laboratory chamber extends his wings and vibrates them to produce his species' version of a love song. A female fly stays nearby listening. Suddenly, a green light flashes across the chamber for a fraction of a second. The male's song cuts off mid-note and his wings fold. The female, not impressed by the interrupted serenade, walks away. The culprit? An AI system that watched the male begin his courtship dance and shut down his song-producing brain cells. Developed by scientists at Nagoya University and their collaborators from Osaka University and Tohoku University, ...

Suicide hotline calls increase with rising nighttime temperatures (by 168% for temperatures in the hottest 99th percentile), which could warrant temperature-triggered staffing protocols.    Article URL: https://plos.io/3Mtdju2 Article Title: Temperature extremes contribute to suicide-related help-seeking through multiple pathways: Evidence from crisis hotline data (2019–2023)  Author Countries: United States Funding: This work was supported by the National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program (SCON-10001154 to MS and JR). The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ...

A multi-institutional team of researchers led by Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC has for the first time identified specific patterns of brain chemical activity that predict how quickly individual honey bees learn new associations, offering important insights into the biological basis of learning and decision-making. The findings, which were published in Sciences Advances, found that the balance between the neurotransmitters octopamine and tyramine can predict whether a bee will learn quickly, slowly, or not at all as they associate an odor with a reward.  Because the same ancient ...

Scientists examined engineered mouse models, human neurons and brains of Down syndrome patients, who are at high risk of developing an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s Decades-old, FDA-approved drug restored neuronal function, steering neurons away from producing toxic amyloid‑beta 42 Drug would need to be taken ‘very, very early,’ before brain cells die Existing human clinical data showed drug slowed the progression of Alzheimer’s pathology CHICAGO — While physicians and scientists have long known Alzheimer’s ...

Researchers have identified a new type of visual cell in deep-sea fish larvae that challenges a century of knowledge about vertebrate visual systems. Dr Fabio Cortesi from The University of Queensland’s School of the Environment said the finding could lead to new camera technology and medical treatments. “For more than 150 years, textbooks have taught that vision in most vertebrates is made of cones and rods – cones which work in bright light and rods for dark situations,” Dr Cortesi said. “But our study of deep-sea fish larvae revealed a new cell type – a photoreceptor that optimises vision in gloomy or twilight conditions. “It combines the ...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A key problem facing artificial intelligence (AI) development is the vast amount of energy the technology requires, with some experts projecting AI datacenters to be responsible for over 13% of global electricity usage by 2028. According to Xingjie Ni, associate professor of electrical engineering at the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the key to addressing this roadblock could lie in computers powered by light instead of circuitry. Ni and his team recently developed a prototype device ...