Using publicly available ocean data spanning 65 years and climate model experiments, Duke University researchers found that specific salinity patterns in the western Pacific can increase El Nino intensity by about 20% and make extreme events twice as likely. Fresher water at the equator combined with saltier water farther away drives eastward currents that push warm surface water east, feeding El Nino development - a mechanism overlooked in existing forecasting models.

The Office of Naval Research has named 23 university researchers as 2026 Young Investigator Program awardees, sharing approximately $17 million in funding. Selected from nearly 330 applicants representing institutions in 11 states, the awardees will conduct research in coastal forecasting, machine learning, additive manufacturing, autonomous operations, advanced sensors, and other areas critical to Navy and Marine Corps capability.

A genome-wide study using data from over 15,500 participants in the Lifelines cohort found that approximately 30% of variation in experiencing aesthetic chills from art, music, and literature is linked to family-level factors, with about one quarter of that attributable to common genetic variants. Some genetic effects were shared across artistic domains and linked to openness to experience; others appeared specific to individual art forms.

A Rutgers Health study of 3,200 U.S. adults published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that misinformation about medical aid in dying (MAID) legality is primarily shaped by ideology and religious participation, while uncertainty about MAID's legal status is associated with lower education and financial insecurity. The distinction matters: correcting misinformation requires values-aligned messaging, while reducing uncertainty calls for straightforward health education.

A study published in Science by Mississippi State University researchers examines new ancient DNA evidence from Colombia and Mexico that traces diseases closely related to syphilis back more than 5,000 years. The findings challenge the long-held European-origin hypothesis and demonstrate how advances in paleogenomics are transforming understanding of where treponemal diseases first emerged.

A new NSF award supports the REDTEAM project at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences, which will use structured role-playing game workshops to model the human-behavioral dimensions of research security threats in academia. Unlike compliance checklists or technical audits, the RPG approach simulates the competing pressures researchers actually face - funding incentives, international collaborations, and ambiguous ethical decisions.

Vipin Kumar, a composites manufacturing researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, has been named to the American Composites Manufacturers Association's 2026 Emerging Leaders Program. Kumar's work spans large-scale polymer additive manufacturing, carbon fiber-reinforced composites, and lightning strike protection for aerospace applications. He holds three granted patents with 12 more pending.

A review published in Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes examines whether large language models (LLMs) could transform aquatic environmental risk assessment by extracting and connecting information from dispersed scientific literature, monitoring reports, and policy documents. The authors identify real promise in the technology but flag the early-stage status of current applications and challenges including data scarcity, hallucination risk, and computational demands.

A review in the journal Nitrogen Cycling outlines how isotope science can trace reactive nitrogen - released by fertilizers, fossil fuels, and industrial processes - as it moves through ecosystems, causing pollution and climate feedbacks. Key findings challenge previous assumptions: non-fossil sources contribute more nitrogen oxides than thought, forests play a more active cycling role than recognized, and plants pay hidden carbon costs to assimilate nitrogen.

Researchers tested five tetracycline antibiotics against rice straw biochar and found that small differences in molecular structure produced markedly different removal rates. Doxycycline and minocycline bound most rapidly; oxytetracycline was slowest. The dominant interaction is hydrogen bonding between amino groups on the antibiotics and carbonyl groups on biochar surfaces, and the team developed predictive models linking chemical structure to adsorption speed.

MSU researchers studying chronic pain found that a subset of immune cells called monocytes produce interleukin-10, a molecule that signals neurons to stop transmitting pain. These cells are more active in males due to higher testosterone levels, and the same pattern held in both mouse models and human patients from car accident studies. The discovery points toward non-opioid treatment possibilities that target pain resolution rather than pain blocking.

A WSU study published in PNAS followed 20 generations of rats after a single gestational exposure to the fungicide vinclozolin. Disease rates in the kidneys, testes, ovaries, and prostate persisted through all generations. More strikingly, by the 15th to 18th generations, disease severity increased sharply and maternal and offspring mortality during birth spiked. In humans, 20 generations spans roughly 500 years.

A survey of 1,515 boys and men found that social media use - particularly exposure to content promoting muscular ideals and muscle-building drugs, and engagement in body comparisons - was more strongly associated with intentions to use anabolic-androgenic steroids than raw screen time. Researchers say media literacy and marketing regulation deserve attention alongside general screen time guidance.

A mathematical biology study from City St George's, University of London applies evolutionary theory to cancer treatment sequencing. The models predict that delivering a second therapy while a tumor is still shrinking under the first treatment - before resistant cells can proliferate - should outperform the standard wait-and-watch approach in many tumor types. Three small clinical trials are now testing the strategy.

The Milken Institute SPARC program and Ann Theodore Foundation have launched a $575,000 grant to support a Phase 2 clinical trial testing mTOR inhibitors - drugs that target a specific molecular pathway linked to sarcoidosis - in patients with the skin form of the disease. A 2024 pilot trial showed 7 of 10 cutaneous sarcoidosis patients experienced sustained improvement on the mTOR inhibitor sirolimus.

A study from Brazil's Center for Cell-Based Therapy tested new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) designs in NK-92 immune cells. By adding costimulatory domains 2B4 and DAP12, then using the drug dasatinib to temporarily modulate cell activation, researchers achieved improved tumor control compared to conventional CAR-NK approaches in animal models.

A large longitudinal study tracking nearly half a million adolescents found that past-year cannabis use during the teen years was associated with twice the risk of developing psychotic and bipolar disorders by age 26. Even casual use - not just heavy consumption - showed significant psychiatric risk associations that persisted after controlling for prior mental health conditions.

Analyzing 31 years of death records across U.S. counties exposed to tropical cyclones, Columbia University researchers found each additional storm-day linked to a 3.84% increase in drug-related death rates in the exposure month and sustained effects for three months afterward. Across the study period, researchers estimated 1,235 excess drug deaths attributable to storm exposure -- about 40 per year.

A cohort study published in JAMA Health Forum finds that adolescents who use cannabis face markedly higher risks of subsequent psychotic, bipolar, depressive, and anxiety disorders -- with the strongest associations for psychotic and bipolar conditions. The findings arrive as cannabis legalization continues to expand across the United States, raising questions about protective policies for adolescents.

A cross-sectional study using 2021-2023 National Health Interview Survey data finds U.S. adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities face dramatically higher rates of mental health conditions and treatment barriers than adults without functional impairments -- with findings calling for accessible, affordable, disability-informed mental health services.

A nationally representative study of 44,000 U.S. adults published in JAMA Network Open finds that adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities are nine times more likely to have diagnosed anxiety (56.8% vs. 10.6%) and depression (56.9% vs. 9.9%) than the general population -- while being five times more likely to skip care due to cost even when covered by Medicaid.

The Massage Therapy Foundation has awarded a $300,000 three-year grant to the University of Denver to evaluate whether six 20-minute prenatal massage sessions added to the MotherWise wellness program reduce postpartum depression and improve anxiety, pain, sleep, and stress outcomes among perinatal women from underserved and minority communities.

A review published in Oncoscience examines gastrointestinal toxicity from three classes of targeted cancer therapy. The authors find that TKIs, ADCs, and CAR-T therapies each cause distinct pathological patterns in intestinal tissue -- patterns that can be misread as infection or inflammatory bowel disease without detailed treatment history and active pathologist involvement.

The Bial Foundation's Award in Biomedicine, carrying a prize of 350,000 euros, will name its 2025 winner on February 24 at a ceremony in Porto. The prize recognizes exceptional biomedical research published within the last decade; past recipients include Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, who later shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for mRNA vaccine research.

Neurofilament light chain (NfL), a blood biomarker used to monitor neurodegeneration in humans, was detectable in all 57 mammal species tested and age-correlated in mice, cats, dogs, and horses. In older mice, the rate of NfL rise predicted lifespan: those with faster-rising NfL died sooner. The findings open a potential path to biological age assessment in veterinary medicine.