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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Implanted Brain Devices Detect Walking at Home in Parkinson's Patients for the First Time

In a first-of-its-kind feasibility study, UCSF researchers used implanted deep brain stimulation devices to record and classify brain activity during over 80 hours of unsupervised daily life in four Parkinson's patients. Published in Science Advances, the work showed that neural patterns associated with walking are detectable outside the laboratory - a prerequisite for future systems that adjust stimulation automatically during gait.

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Technology13 Feb 2026

MOF-Semiconductor Hybrid Degrades Water Contaminants with 95% Efficiency Using Sunlight

Researchers at Brazil's Federal University of Sao Carlos have developed a photocatalytic material that combines a zirconium metal-organic framework with silver pyrophosphate semiconductor, achieving over 95% removal of emerging water contaminants including antibiotics and industrial dyes. The material absorbs nearly seven times more photons in the visible spectrum than in UV, making it viable for solar-powered water treatment.

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Social Science13 Feb 2026

ASU's Sally Morton Presents a Framework for Research That Serves Communities

Sally C. Morton, executive vice president of ASU Knowledge Enterprise, presented a lecture at the AAAS Annual Meeting describing how universities can structure research to directly address community needs. Drawing on ASU's Phoenix Bioscience Core and semiconductor workforce initiatives, Morton argued for a collaborative model that co-designs solutions with local partners and measures success in both human and economic terms.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Diabetic Kidney Disease Produces the Severest Biochemical Disruption Among Related Conditions

A prospective case-control study of 200 participants compared biochemical profiles across four groups: diabetic nephropathy, diabetes alone, nephropathy alone, and healthy controls. Patients with diabetic nephropathy had the most severe combined disruption - impaired kidney function, poor glycemic control, and elevated inflammatory markers - while those with diabetes alone showed the most pronounced dyslipidemia.

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Physics13 Feb 2026

Muscle Strength Predicts Survival in Older Women Independent of Physical Activity

Among ambulatory older women, muscular strength was independently associated with lower mortality risk in a study published in JAMA Network Open. The association held after adjusting for accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary behavior, walking speed, and systemic inflammation - suggesting that strength itself, not just activity level, matters for survival in older age.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Post-Dobbs Telemedicine Abortion Requests Rose Most Among Young Adults in Restrictive States

After the Dobbs decision ended federal abortion protections, requests for medication abortion through online telemedicine services increased most steeply among young adults aged 18-25, particularly in states with restrictive abortion laws. Among adolescents, the largest increases occurred in states with both gestational bans and parental consent or notification requirements, according to a study in JAMA Health Forum.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Two-Stage Fermentation Removes 95-99% of Off-Odors from Plant Proteins

A two-step fermentation method developed at Ohio State University removed 95 to 99% of the characteristic off-odors from eight different plant proteins including soy, pea, chickpea, and hemp. The approach, published in the journal Foods, outperformed single-stage fermentation across all tested proteins and adds no meaningful cost or production time.

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Energy13 Feb 2026

Hong Kong Team Targets 30% Battery Energy Boost with Stabilized Lithium-Rich Cathodes

A City University of Hong Kong team led by Professor Liu Qi has developed techniques to stabilize lithium-rich layered oxide cathode materials, which offer over 30% higher energy density than current lithium-ion battery cathodes but have long suffered from voltage and capacity decay. Published in Nature Energy in 2023 and now backed by RAISe+ Scheme funding, the work is scaling toward a 1,000-ton annual production facility.

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Science13 Feb 2026

Wild Parrot Duets Follow Syntax Rules, 10-Year Field Study Reveals

A decade of fieldwork and data analysis on critically endangered Yellow-naped Amazon parrots has found that their territorial warble duets carry language-like structure. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown identified 36 call types organized by syntax rules and collocates - paired calls that appear together consistently, analogous to word-pairing in human language. The study was published in the Journal of Avian Biology.

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Environment13 Feb 2026

Next-Gen Solar Panels Could Avoid 8.2 Billion Tonnes of CO2 by 2035

A lifecycle study by UK universities finds that shifting solar manufacturing from the current PERC standard to the newer TOPCon architecture, combined with cleaner manufacturing grids, could prevent 8.2 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2035. Published in Nature Communications, the analysis assessed 16 environmental categories and found TOPCon better in 15 of them.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Surgery Frees 58% of Drug-Resistant Epilepsy Patients from Seizures; Stimulation Offers Safer Alternative

A systematic review covering 15 studies and up to 440 patients per study compares two surgical approaches for drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. Brain tissue resection guided by stereoelectroencephalography achieved seizure freedom in 58.5% of patients on average. Responsive neurostimulation reached 12.85% seizure freedom but preserved cognitive function better and avoided permanent tissue removal.

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Science13 Feb 2026

Cardiac Device Complication Rate Holds at 5.5% in Indian Tertiary Care Study

A prospective study tracking 183 patients who received cardiac implantable devices in India over two years recorded a 5.5% adverse event rate - in line with international and Indian benchmarks. Device infection accounted for most complications. No statistically significant differences emerged between male and female patients, though the study's modest size limits definitive conclusions.

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Science13 Feb 2026

A Single Amino Acid Determines Why One Antihistamine Isomer Binds Five Times Stronger

Doxepin exists as two geometric mirror-image molecules that behave very differently at the histamine H1 receptor. New work from Tokyo University of Science explains why: a single threonine amino acid in the receptor's binding pocket creates an enthalpy-entropy tradeoff that gives the Z-isomer five times stronger binding. The findings published in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters offer a template for more selective antihistamine design.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Parkinson's Disease Hijacks the Body's Energy Engine, Study Finds

Weight loss in Parkinson's disease reflects a metabolic failure rather than poor nutrition alone. A Japanese study of 91 patients found that fat - not muscle - is what disappears, because the body's standard glucose-burning pathways break down and the body switches to burning fat as an emergency fuel. The findings point toward new nutritional and therapeutic strategies beyond conventional dopamine replacement.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Your Genes Shape Your Gut Bacteria More Than Previously Known

Two coordinated studies covering nearly 28,700 people have identified 11 regions of the human genome that influence which bacteria live in the gut and what they do. Only two such regions were previously confirmed. Several of the newly identified variants connect to known risk factors for gluten intolerance, hemorrhoids, and cardiovascular disease.

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Environment13 Feb 2026

Rice Paddies and Palm Oil Drive a New High-Resolution Map of Farm Emissions

Scientists have mapped global cropland greenhouse gas emissions at roughly 10-kilometer resolution, the most detailed picture yet of where agricultural pollution originates. Published in Nature Climate Change, the analysis found croplands emitted 2.5 gigatons of CO2-equivalent in 2020, with rice paddies and drained peatlands for palm oil together responsible for more than two-thirds of the total.

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Science13 Feb 2026

Heat Can Flow Backward in Pure Crystals, EPFL Theory Confirms

Physicists at EPFL have built an analytical model proving that in highly ordered crystalline materials, heat can flow toward warmer regions rather than cooler ones - a phenomenon called phonon hydrodynamics. The work, published in Physical Review Letters, offers practical guidance for designing electronics that manage waste heat more efficiently.

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Environment13 Feb 2026

Arctic Peatlands Are Expanding Outward at More Than a Metre a Year in Some Locations

Arctic peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests combined. They are also growing. A University of Exeter study using peat cores from 12 sites across the European and Canadian Arctic finds consistent post-industrial expansion linked to rising temperatures - with implications for the global carbon cycle that cut both ways.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

A Microfluidic Chip That Detects PFAS and Pharmaceutical Pollutants Directly from Muddy Water

Testing water contaminated with soil or food residues for trace pollutants normally requires filtration first - a step that removes particles but often takes target compounds with them. A new microfluidic chip from KRICT solves this by keeping an extractant droplet stationary while the messy sample flows past it.

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Science13 Feb 2026

Autonomous Prosthetic Arms Feel Most Like Part of the Body When They Move at Human Speed

When an autonomous prosthetic arm moves too fast or too slow, users stop feeling it belongs to them. VR experiments testing six movement speeds found that one-second reaching duration - close to natural human movement - maximized body ownership, usability, and perceived competence while minimizing discomfort.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

35 Years of Cell and Gene Therapy Research: Where the Science Moved and Where It Stalled

Bone marrow transplantation and ex vivo gene therapy have seen sustained research growth since the late 1980s. Mesenchymal stem cell therapy and in vivo gene therapy have stalled in their transition to clinical practice. A bibliometric study of 160,000 papers across 35 years maps what drove those different trajectories.

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Environment13 Feb 2026

A Ten-Minute Microwave Process Produces Carbon That Captures CO2 as Well as Methods Taking Hours

Traditional activated carbon production for CO2 capture requires furnace heating for an hour or more. A new microwave-based method takes ten minutes, consumes dramatically less energy, and produces a carbon material with superior adsorption performance - 4.72 mmol/g at 0 degrees Celsius - through a combination of pore structure and surface chemistry.

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Medicine13 Feb 2026

Tracking Microplastics Inside Living Organisms Requires a Fundamentally Different Approach to Imaging

Microplastics have been found in human blood, liver, and brain tissue. What scientists still cannot do is watch them move, transform, or degrade inside a living organism in real time. A new paper proposes a fluorescence-based tracking strategy designed specifically to solve that problem.

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Energy13 Feb 2026

HKUST Engineers a Calcium-Ion Battery That Sustains 74% Capacity After 1,000 Charge Cycles

Calcium is the fifth most abundant element on Earth and has an electrochemical window comparable to lithium. A new electrolyte design from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology allows calcium ions to move efficiently through a battery cell, reaching 155.9 mAh/g capacity with 74.6% retention after 1,000 cycles.

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Technology13 Feb 2026

Mount Sinai Presents AI Models That Could Predict Serious Pregnancy Complications Before They Develop

High-risk pregnancy specialists from Mount Sinai presented ten studies at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's 2026 Annual Pregnancy Meeting, including a machine learning model that identifies placenta accreta spectrum risk before conception and an AI tool for detecting severe fetal heart defects during routine ultrasound.

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