As the global electric vehicle (EV) market and renewable energy sector continue to expand rapidly, demand for advanced lithium-ion battery technology continues to grow. A research team from City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) has been awarded funding under the "RAISe+ Scheme" to address the long-standing voltage decay issue associated with lithium-rich cathode materials. This groundbreaking research aims to introduce a new range of battery materials that offer enhanced energy density, extended lifespan and reduced costs. The ...

With a few minutes of searching, anyone can find videos online of chatty birds: macaws talk to their keepers, cockatoos sing to the camera, corvids mimic the jarring sounds of construction sites.   Research has shown that some birds can understand and use words in context — so, when Polly speaks up from inside her cage, she may really want a cracker — but scientists know far less about how birds use their vocal abilities in the wild. Christine Dahlin, professor of biology at the University ...

Manufacturing next-generation solar panels could cut global carbon emissions by up to 8.2 billion tonnes by 2035, finds a new international study by researchers from the University of Warwick and Northumbria, Birmingham, and Oxford Universities. Solar panels, known scientifically as photovoltaics (PV), convert sunlight directly into electricity and are central to global decarbonisation. But as countries race to deploy solar at multi-terawatt scale, the carbon footprint of manufacturing these devices is coming under increasing scrutiny. At the same time, the industry is rapidly shifting from the current industry-standard ...

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) is the most common form of focal epilepsy, affecting a significant proportion of patients who develop drug-resistant epilepsy. Surgical interventions, particularly stereoelectroencephalography (SEEG)-guided temporal lobe resection (TLR) and SEEG-guided responsive neurostimulation (RNS), have emerged as pivotal treatment options. This systematic review aims to compare the efficacy, safety, and quality of life (QoL) outcomes associated with these two interventions in adults with drug-resistant TLE. The review followed the PRISMA 2020 ...

Background and objectives Cardiac pacemaker implantation is a primary therapy for various arrhythmic disorders; however, safety concerns persist in India. This study aimed to evaluate two-year safety outcomes of cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverter-defibrillators, and cardiac resynchronization therapy devices in a tertiary care setting. Methods In this prospective cohort study, data collection was conducted over a one-year enrolment period (February 2023 to January 2024), encompassing patient demographics, pacemaker implantation details, indications, and comorbidities. Patients were prospectively followed for a total of two years from enrolment—during the ...

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are one of the largest families of cell surface proteins in the human body that recognize hormones, neurotransmitters, and drugs. These receptors regulate a wide range of physiological processes and are the targets of more than 30% of currently marketed drugs. The histamine H1 receptor (H1R) is one such GPCR subtype that plays a key role in mediating allergic reactions, inflammation, vascular permeability, airway constriction, wakefulness, and cognitive functions in the human body. While antihistamines primarily target H1R, current drugs can exhibit limited therapeutic efficacy, prompting researchers to look at H1R ligands from new perspectives. Recently, ...

Weight loss is a well-recognized but poorly understood non-motor feature of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Many patients progressively lose weight as the disease advances, often alongside worsening motor symptoms and quality of life. Until now, it was unclear whether this reflected muscle loss, poor nutrition, or deeper metabolic changes. New research shows that PD-related weight loss is driven mainly by a selective loss of body fat, while muscle mass is largely preserved, and is accompanied by a fundamental shift in how the body produces energy. Although PD is classically viewed as a neurological disorder, increasing evidence points to widespread ...

In two new studies on 28,000 individuals, researchers are able to show that genetic variants in 11 regions of the human genome have a clear influence on which bacteria are in the gut and what they do there. Only two genetic regions were previously known. Some of the new genetic variants can be linked to an increased risk of gluten intolerance, haemorrhoids and cardiovascular diseases. The community of bacteria living in our gut, or gut microbiome, has become a hot research area in recent years because of its great significance for health and disease. However, the extent ...

Study creates most precise map yet of agricultural emissions, charts path to reduce hotspots New map breaks down agricultural emissions by crop and source East Asia and Pacific contributed to about half of the total agricultural greenhouse gas Rice alone contributed 43% of cropland emissions Regions that produce a lot of food are often high emitters Authors says that mitigation planning should take productivity into account ITHACA, N.Y. – To lower agricultural emissions, policymakers and communities first need to pinpoint the sources. Not just by country ...

To understand how heat normally flows, you could study the second law of thermodynamics – or wrap your hands around a hot mug of coffee. Both tell us that heat tends to flow toward cooler regions. As a material’s thermal energy increases, its atoms vibrate, and quantum mechanics describes these vibrations as phonons: quasiparticles that transport heat. Normally, collisions between phonons cause heat to dissipate slowly. But in highly ordered, pure crystals, these collisions can result in a fluid-like, directional heat flow known as phonon hydrodynamics. Researchers from the group of Theory and Simulation of Materials, led ...

New research confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding as temperatures continue to rise.  The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 4°C in the last four decades.  The new study, led by the University of Exeter, shows peatlands have expanded since 1950, with some peatland edges moving by more than a metre a year.  Given that the study covered a broad range of Arctic conditions – ...

Environmental pollutant analysis typically requires complex sample pretreatment steps such as filtration, separation, and preconcentration. When solid materials such as sand, soil, or food residues are present in water samples, analytical accuracy often decreases, and filtration can unintentionally remove trace-level target pollutants along with the solids. To address this challenge, a joint research team led by Dr. Ju Hyeon Kim at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), in collaboration with Professor Jae Bem You’s group at Chungnam National University, has developed a microfluidic-based analytical device that enables direct ...

Summary When AI powered prosthetic arms that move autonomously become widespread, understanding how people feel about them and accept them will be crucial. In this study, we used virtual reality to simulate a situation in which a participant’s own arm was replaced by a robotic prosthetic arm, and examined how the prosthesis movement speed affects embodiment, including body ownership, the sense of agency, usability, and social impressions of the robot such as competence and discomfort. We found that both overly fast and overly slow movements reduced body ownership and usability, whereas a moderate speed close to natural human reaching, with a movement duration of about ...

Kyoto, Japan -- Cell and gene therapies, or CGT, have come a long way since they were first introduced. In the last few decades, both cell therapy -- the transplantation of living cells -- and gene therapy -- the use of genetic material to modify cell functions -- have been increasingly incorporated into clinical practice. Various challenges and advances have propelled the use of CGT in innovative treatments for diseases that had otherwise proven difficult to conquer. Yet progress has been uneven across different therapies and regions. To accelerate ...

Scientists have developed a fast and energy efficient way to produce advanced carbon materials capable of capturing carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas driving climate change. The new method dramatically reduces production time while improving adsorption performance, offering a promising pathway toward low cost carbon capture technologies. In a recent study, researchers designed a novel strategy that combines pre oxidation treatment with microwave activation to create nitrogen doped ultramicroporous carbon derived from coal. The material demonstrates exceptional ability to capture and selectively separate carbon dioxide from gas mixtures. “Carbon capture technologies must ...

Microplastics and nanoplastics are now found everywhere on Earth, from ocean depths to agricultural soils and even inside the human body. Yet scientists still struggle to understand what these particles actually do once they enter living organisms. A new study proposes an innovative fluorescence-based strategy that could allow researchers to track microplastics in real time as they move, transform, and degrade inside biological systems. Global plastic production now exceeds 460 million tons annually, with millions ...

Researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have achieved a breakthrough in calcium-ion battery (CIB) technology, which could transform energy storage solutions in everyday life. Utilizing quasi-solid-state electrolytes (QSSEs), these innovative CIBs promise to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of energy storage, impacting a wide range of applications from renewable energy systems to electric vehicles. The findings are published in the international journal Advanced Science titled “High-Performance Quasi-Solid-State Calcium-Ion Batteries from Redox-Active Covalent Organic Framework ...

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL TIME OF SESSION LISTED BELOW   (New York, NY – February 9, 2026) – High-risk pregnancy specialists from the Raquel and Jaime Gilinski Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai are presenting research at the Annual Pregnancy Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) in Las Vegas until February 13. These presentations include analysis of an AI-assisted tool to diagnosis severe congenital heart defects from fetal scans and a machine learning model that could predict placenta accreta spectrum. The Mount Sinai doctors and ...

Pressure to achieve at school at age 15 is linked to depressive symptoms and risk of self-harm, and the association appears to persist into adulthood, finds a study led by University College London (UCL) researchers. The authors of the new study, published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, say their findings suggest that reducing academic pressure in schools could reduce depression and self-harm among young people. Senior author Professor Gemma Lewis (UCL Psychiatry) said: “In recent ...

Measuring human movement with tracking devices on looser clothing is more accurate than on tight body suits or straps.   The discovery by scientists at King’s College London could mark a potential breakthrough for a range of technologies, including improving accuracy on personal health devices, such as Fitbits and smart watches, to enhancing motion capture for CGI movie characters.  It could also support health and medical research by making it easier to gather data on conditions affecting mobility such as Parkinson’s.   The research, published in Nature ...

When the sun goes down, solar panels stop working. This is the fundamental hurdle of renewable energy: how to save the sun’s power for a rainy day — or a cold night. Chemists at UC Santa Barbara have developed a solution that doesn’t require bulky batteries or electrical grids. In a paper published in the journal Science, Associate Professor Grace Han and her team detail a new material that captures sunlight, stores it within chemical bonds and releases it as heat on demand. The material, a modified organic molecule called pyrimidone, is the latest advancement in Molecular Solar Thermal (MOST) energy ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A new study published by Mayo Clinic researchers suggests that ovarian cancer cells quickly activate a survival response after PARP inhibitor treatment, and blocking this early response may make this class of drugs work better. PARP inhibitors are a common treatment for ovarian cancer and can be especially effective in cancers with impaired DNA repair. However, many tumors eventually stop responding, even when the drugs initially show results. The new research identifies ...

A new study suggests that young men overwhelmingly support affirmative sexual consent in principle—yet often find its verbal implementation difficult in practice. The research, led by scholars at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Melbourne University’s Department of General Practice and Primary Care, explores how young heterosexual men interpret and navigate consent during real-world sexual encounters. The findings were published in the Journal of Sex & ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Siemens Healthineers and Mayo Clinic are expanding their strategic collaboration to enhance patient care for neurodegenerative disease and the management of prostate cancer and metastatic liver tumors. The two organizations have signed an agreement that will improve care for people with those diseases and expand access to new imaging and interventional technologies. Initial areas for collaboration include: Neurodegenerative disease: Developing and bringing to clinical use artificial ...

Physicists have long recognized the value of photonic graph states in quantum information processing. However, the difficulty of making these graph states has left this value largely untapped. In a step forward for the field, researchers from The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have proposed a new scheme they term “emit-then-add” for producing highly entangled states of many photons that can work with current hardware. Published in npj Quantum Information, their strategy lays the groundwork for a wide range of quantum enhanced operations including measurement-based quantum computing. Entanglement is a key driver in delivering ...