New York, NY — For years, rising rates of myopia — or nearsightedness — have been widely attributed to increased screen time, especially among children and young adults. But new research from scientists at the SUNY College of Optometry suggests the story may be more complicated — and more human. In a new study to be published in Cell Reports, researchers propose that myopia may be driven less by screens themselves and more by a common indoor visual habit: prolonged close-up focus in low-light environments, which limits how much light reaches ...

SEATTLE – February 17, 2026 – Fred Hutch Cancer Center scientists reached a crucial milestone in blocking Epstein Barr virus (EBV), a pathogen estimated to infect 95% of the global population that is linked to multiple types of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and other chronic health conditions. Using mice with human antibody genes, the research team developed new genetically human monoclonal antibodies that prevent two key antigens on the surface of the virus from binding to and entering human immune cells. Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the ...

In an early test of how AI can be used to decipher large amounts of health data, researchers at UC San Francisco and Wayne State University found that generative AI tools could perform orders of magnitude faster — and in some cases better than computer science teams that had spent months poring over the data.   Teams of scientists and scientists paired with AI were given the same task: predict preterm birth based on data from more than 1,000 pregnant women.   Even a junior research duo composed of a master’s student at UCSF, Reuben Sarwal, and a high school ...

About The Study: In this analysis of 6 pooled cohorts, higher levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) after a cancer diagnosis were associated with lower risk of cancer mortality among people previously diagnosed with 1 of 7 cancers not commonly studied for their association with MVPA. These findings suggest that it is important for health care professionals to promote physical activity for longevity and overall health among people living with and beyond cancer.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Erika Rees-Punia, PhD, email erika.rees-punia@cancer.org. To ...

About The Study: This cohort study of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) suggests that a more advanced CKD stage was associated with increased incidence of cognitive impairment. These findings underscore CKD severity as a risk factor for cognitive decline across the CKD spectrum.  Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Tanika N. Kelly, PhD, MPH, email tkelly5@uic.edu, To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.59834) Editor’s ...

PALM DESERT, Ca., February 17, 2026 — New research highlighting the growing potential of radiopharmaceutical therapies (RPT) to improve outcomes for people with cancer will be presented at the inaugural Multidisciplinary Radiopharmaceutical Therapy Symposium, taking place in Palm Desert, California, and online starting today. Studies at the meeting, sponsored by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), span established uses of RPT and early signals for new indications, while also addressing what clinics need in place to safely offer these treatments as they move into ...

PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA [February 17, 2026] — The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) today published new NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) for Pediatric Soft Tissue Sarcomas. This is the 7th NCCN Guidelines® for a pediatric cancer, expanding the overall library to cover 91 topics in cancer care. The guidelines present the latest evidence-based, expert consensus-driven recommendations for nearly every type of cancer plus prevention, screening, survivorship, and supportive care. NCCN Guidelines are updated at least once a year and help cancer care providers worldwide ...

Four New York University faculty have been awarded fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation: Danique Jeurissen, an assistant professor of neural science, and Marvin Parasram, an assistant professor of chemistry, as well as Florian Schäfer and Joseph Tassarotti, assistant professors in NYU’s Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science. “The Sloan Research Fellows are among the most promising early-career researchers in the US and Canada, already driving meaningful progress in their respective disciplines,” says Stacie Bloom, president and chief executive officer of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We look forward to seeing ...

The way we understand the movement of our own bodies plays an important role when learning physical skills, from sports to dancing. But a new study finds this phenomenon works very differently for people learning to use robotic prosthetic devices. “When people first start walking with a prosthetic leg, they think their bodies are moving more awkwardly than they really are,” says Helen Huang, corresponding author of a paper on the work. “With practice, as their performance improves, people still do a poor job of assessing how their bodies move, but they are inaccurate in a very ...

What types of photos make people reach for their wallets? New Stanford University-led research suggests that brain activity can help forecast which wildlife images will inspire people to engage online and donate to conservation causes. The insights could help environmental organizations design more effective communications campaigns. The findings suggest that socioemotional features, such as visible faces or cues that encourage viewers to infer an animal’s mental state, played a key role in driving engagement. The ...

New research shows that short periods of extreme heat and drought during flowering could become one of the biggest threats to global wheat production in the coming decades.  As the climate changes, farmers around the world are facing more frequent and intense weather extremes. While drought has long been seen as the main danger to wheat crops, this new study suggests that heatwaves at a key moment in the plant’s life cycle may soon pose an even greater risk.  Flowering: a critical moment:  Dr Mikhail Semenov, ...

Harlequin ichthyosis (HI) is a rare, severe genetic skin disorder caused by ABCA12 mutations, leading to defective lipid transport and loss of skin barrier function. Infants present with thick, armor-like plates, deep fissures, ectropion, and eclabium, with high risks of dehydration, infection, and respiratory failure. Historically fatal, survival has improved with neonatal intensive care and systemic retinoids. This review covers pathophysiology, clinical features, diagnosis, management, genetic counseling, and emerging gene-based therapies. Introduction HI is the most severe form of congenital ichthyosis. Newborns are encased in rigid hyperkeratotic ...

Scientists have produced the first global map and analysis of small mare ridges (SMRs) on the moon, a characteristic geological feature of tectonic activity. Published in The Planetary Science Journal Dec. 24, 2025, the analysis performed by scientists at the National Air and Space Museum’s Center for Earth and Planetary Studies and colleagues reveals for the first time that SMRs are geologically young and are widespread across the lunar maria—the vast, dark plains on the moon’s surface. ...

Chinese chatbots may be censored by the state, according to a study. China has a robust program of censorship and all China-originating LLMs must be approved by the Chinese government before release. Jennifer Pan and Xu Xu compared the responses of foundation LLMs developed in China (BaiChuan, ChatGLM, Ernie Bot, and DeepSeek) to those developed outside of China (Llama2, Llama2-uncensored, GPT3.5, GPT4, and GPT4o) to 145 questions related to Chinese politics. The questions were sourced from events censored by the Chinese government on social media, events covered in Human Rights Watch China reports, and Chinese-language Wikipedia pages that were individually blocked ...

An important goal of any prosthesis is for the device to become incorporated into the user’s body image, their subjective, conscious cognition of their own body’s form and movement. He (Helen) Huang and colleagues studied how people’s body image changed over a multi-day training session with a new robotic leg. The authors recruited 9 non-disabled participants to train with a robotic leg prothesis, with their own legs kept in a bent position. The participants were chosen because they were totally naive to the experience of walking with a prothesis. The authors measured participants’ ambulatory ...

Brain imaging identifies the social and emotional features of wildlife photos that drive engagement on social media. Tara Srirangarajan and colleagues scanned the brains of 34 adults while the participants viewed 56 wildlife images from National Geographic’s Instagram feed and made decisions in a matter of seconds about whether to “like” posts and/or donate to depicted species. Activity in the nucleus accumbens and medial prefrontal cortex predicted individual choices to like and donate. Medial prefrontal ...

HOBOKEN, NJ—Wiley (NYSE: WLY), a global leader in authoritative content and research intelligence for the advancement of scientific discovery, innovation and learning, today announced it will significantly expand the Advanced Portfolio into life, health, and social sciences disciplines, with plans to launch eight new journals by the end of 2026 and more to follow over the next several years. This expansion of the Advanced Portfolio—a collection of scientific journals currently encompassing more than 25 high-impact titles—is designed to empower scientists, making publishing easier for researchers through ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10 AM GMT / 5 AM ET TUESDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2026 Invisible battery parts finally seen with pioneering technique More images available via the link in the notes section Researchers at the University of Oxford have developed a powerful new method to visualise an essential lithium-ion battery electrode component that had been extremely difficult to trace before. The discovery, published today (17 February) in Nature Communications, could lead to increased manufacturing efficiency of battery electrodes and ultimately help improve the charging rate and lifetime of Li-ion ...

University of Leeds news Embargoed: Tuesday 17 February 10:00 GMT (05:00 EST) Tropical forests help to generate vast amounts of rainfall each year, adding weight to arguments for protecting them as water and climate pressures increase, say researchers. A new study led by the University of Leeds has put a monetary value on one of forests’ least recognised services as a source of rainfall to surrounding regions, finding that each hectare generates 2.4 million litres of rain each year - enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool.   Satellite observations were combined with simulations from the latest generation of climate models, to reduce long‑standing uncertainty ...

Nucleotide synthesis—the production of the basic components of DNA and RNA—is essential for cell growth and division. In most animal cells, this process depends closely on properly functioning mitochondria, the organelles responsible for respiration and energy production. When mitochondrial respiration fails—a common feature of mitochondrial diseases and several forms of cancer—cells lose the ability to proliferate normally. A new study published in Nature Metabolism now shows that this dependence is not irreversible. An ...

Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth’s most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero. Ice caves are just one of the environments hosting a variety of microorganisms that represent a source of genetic diversity that has not yet been studied extensively. Now, researchers in Romania tested antibiotic resistance profiles of a bacterial strain that until recently was hidden in a 5,000-year-old layer of ice of an underground ice cave – and found it could be an opportunity for developing new strategies to prevent the rise of antibiotic ...

Bioengineered E. coli bacteria can now produce a group of compounds with anticancer, anti-HIV, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory activities. The Kobe University achievement is the result of a rational design strategy that yields a platform for the industrial production of drug candidates. Plants produce many substances with promising pharmacological activities. For example, Rhododendron species produce a class of compounds, called orsellinic acid-derived meroterpenoids, with remarkable anticancer, anti-HIV, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory activities. However, despite their attractiveness for pharmacological research, their natural ...

Hospital admissions for maltreatment of children under the age of 2 years declined 31% during the 16-week lockdown at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, returning to prepandemic levels after restrictions lifted, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251317. However, after the 16-week period of restricted health care access, rates of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) for child maltreatment increased by 80%. “We consider that the observed ...

Osaka, Japan – Ocean waves are one of the most abundant and predictable renewable energy sources on the planet, yet efficiently harnessing their power remains a major challenge. Traditional devices typically operate efficiently only within a narrow range of wave conditions, highlighting the need for more novel, constructive converters. Now, one researcher from The University of Osaka has analyzed the feasibility of a novel device for generating wave power. The device, called a gyroscopic wave energy converter (GWEC), was assessed for its potential in providing practical, large-scale energy generation. The findings were published last month in ...

The psychedelic effects recreational users often seek from taking ketamine do not predict the therapeutic benefits for people being treated for alcohol use disorder. The popular theory, which says that ketamine may have its therapeutic benefits because it produces strong psychedelic effects, has been called into question by a new study from King’s College London and the University of Exeter, published in Addiction. The study suggests the treatment response may be down to other effects of the drug. The research provides new insights into the use of intravenous ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for individuals with moderate to severe alcohol use disorder. It used data from ...