Surprisingly, some of the universe’s brightest objects are black holes. As scorching gas and dust flow around and into a black hole, they glow with fierce intensity across the light spectrum. Now, a team of computational astrophysicists has developed the most comprehensive simulations ever made of how black holes create these dazzling light shows. Using supercomputers, the researchers calculated the behavior of material zipping around black holes. Unlike all previous studies that relied on simplifying approximations, the researchers utilized a full treatment of how light moves and interacts with matter ...

A new study by a research team at Université de Montréal highlights a critical lack of knowledge about the cognitive profiles of people living with both schizophrenia and a personality disorder.   A comprehensive review of scientific literature from the past 24 years, published in Schizophrenia Research: Cognition, reveals that despite the high prevalence of this dual diagnosis (affecting approximately 40 per cent of people diagnosed with schizophrenia) and its association with unfavourable outcomes, the available data are surprisingly limited and fragmented.  “Our analysis shows a significant blind spot in current ...

SAN ANTONIO — December 3, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists believe they may have resolved a 39-year-old mystery about the radiation belts around Uranus. In 1986, when Voyager 2 made the first and only flyby of Uranus, it measured a surprisingly strong electron radiation belt at significantly higher levels than anticipated. Based on extrapolations from other planetary systems, Uranus’ electron radiation belt was off the charts. Since then, scientists have wondered ...

The European Society of Endocrinology (ESE) and the Endocrine Society are delighted to announce Dr Anna Gloyn DPhil FMedSci, as the winner of the fifth Transatlantic Alliance Award 2026. The Transatlantic Alliance Award, launched in 2022, recognises an international leader who has made significant advancements in endocrine research on both sides of the Atlantic - in Europe and the United States. Dr Anna Gloyn has been honoured with this prestigious award for her exceptional work bridging the two continents. ...

The dark web – a hidden corner of the internet accessed through privacy-preserving tools like the Tor browser – operates beyond the reach of traditional search engines and public platforms. Unlike the surface web, its architecture is deliberately designed to shield identities and activities from view, prioritizing anonymity over transparency. Although the dark web has existed for more than 20 years, research assessing mental health differences between its users and those who stay on the surface web remains limited. Its pseudo-anonymous ...

Managers’ narcissistic tendencies may fundamentally affect whether a company makes risky or safe moves as a response to the firm’s above-aspiration performance, according to a new study published in Strategic Management Journal. In a study that helps to clarify prior conflicting research, the researchers find evidence that high-narcissism CEOs respond to above-aspiration performance with more acquisitions, while low-narcissism CEOs avoid acquisitions. The study authors — Korcan Kavusan of Erasmus University, Daniel Z. Mack of Singapore Management University, Matthew P. Mount of ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — In times of economic upheaval, investors can get a clearer picture of the stock market’s future performance if they tune into how corporate insiders are trading stocks in their own companies. That’s a key finding from a new study of investor behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic from Washington State University researchers. The study, which was published in Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, examined the trading choices of insiders during the unprecedented market shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic — finding they often zigged when the market zagged. When most investors were selling stocks ...

To see if a fish is fresh, people recommend looking at its eyes and gills or giving it a sniff. But a more accurate check for food quality and safety is to look for compounds that form when decomposition starts. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sensors have developed a simple, effective electronic device that quickly measures one of these compounds. The prototype sensor can determine how fresh a fish is in less than two minutes. For fish, signs of spoilage (cloudy eyes, bruised gills, foul or fishy odors) might take hours or even days to appear. In contrast, compounds such as hypoxanthine (HX) start forming ...

The microbes inside our bodies not only help break down food but also impact our health. Yet their precise influence is not always understood, especially in the presence of prescription drugs. Now, researchers in ACS Central Science report how one of the most abundant gut bacteria responds to tetracyclines, a class of commonly prescribed antibiotics. Newly characterized signals released by the bacterium could aid the host’s immune response, inhibit pathogens and restructure the gut microbiome. “We previously showed that exogenous molecules ...

FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla., December 3, 2025 – The Family Heart Foundation, a leading research and advocacy organization, published new research in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology revealing significant gaps in cholesterol management during 2022-23 among U.S. adults with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Findings show that only 13% of adults with ASCVD were meeting three key components of optimal low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C) management, including receiving guideline-recommended therapy, consistently taking ...

Researchers at UT San Antonio have uncovered new details about electrical signals happening within nerve cells, deepening scientists’ understanding of the brain. The UT San Antonio research team and international collaborators investigating the electrical activity inside neurons are led by Marcelo Marucho, professor of physics and astronomy and member of the department’s Biophysics Group, and Md Mohsin, a doctoral student pursuing his PhD in Physics. “Understanding how electrical processes work could be crucial for linking the behavior of the cell’s ...

All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) using silicon (Si) anodes are among the most promising candidates for high-energy and long-lasting power sources, particularly for electric vehicles. Si can store more lithium than conventional graphite, but its volume expands by roughly 410% during charging. This swelling generates mechanical stress that cracks particles and weakens their contact with the solid electrolyte, disrupting the flow of ions and reducing efficiency. To address this, a research group led by Professor Yuki Orikasa from the College of Life Sciences, Ritsumeikan University, ...

A researcher from the University of Tokyo and a U.S.-based structural engineer developed a new computational form-finding method that could change how architects and engineers design lightweight and free-form structures covering large spaces. The technique specifically helps create gridshells, thin, curved surfaces whose members form a networked grid. The method makes use of NURBS surfaces, a widely used surface representation format in computer-aided design (CAD). It also drastically reduces computation cost — a task that previously took 90 hours on a high-end GPU completes in about 90 minutes on a standard CPU. Architects pay particular attention to surfaces capable of supporting ...

Macrolactones—large ring lactones—are core components of many natural products and pharmaceutical agents. Traditional synthetic routes rely on seco acids activated with condensing reagents, often requiring harsh conditions or multi-step procedures. An alternative approach using hydroxyaldehydes has remained limited, and radical-based macrolactonization of these substrates had never been reported.   Now, a research team led by Dr. Kenta Tanaka, Assistant Professor at the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary ...

Iron (Fe) is an essential micronutrient for the healthy growth of plants, including many staple crops like rice. Its deficiency remains a common agricultural problem that slashes crop yields, as it leads to impaired photosynthesis, respiration, and nitrogen metabolism. Thus, establishing mechanisms to ensure crops can efficiently take up and utilize Fe, especially in alkaline soils, is a high-stakes challenge for global food security.   Getting Fe into the roots is only the first step; the mineral must then be properly distributed throughout the plant, especially to its young leaves, developing grains, and other active growth tissues. This process ...

During a baby’s early months, the brain is developing rapidly. Billions of neural connections form, expand, and are pruned back, shaped by genetics, the environment, and timing. Though brain development continues throughout life, the early months are critical, particularly when it comes to interactions between a parent and child. What could scientists learn from high-quality brain function data during infancy? With a new $2.3 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of the National ...

PULLMAN, Wash. — College students who binge drink may be acting on influences they brought from home, a new Washington State University-led study suggests. A recent survey shows that students who binge drink more than other students tend to have grown up in a home with more permissive attitudes toward drinking. Those students are also more likely to join Greek-affiliated organizations like fraternities or sororities. In a study published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, researchers surveyed parents and students about drinking attitudes ...

CHICAGO – Ultrasound can aid in treating complications from cosmetic filler injections, according to research being presented this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Cosmetic fillers are injectable substances used to improve the appearance of facial features by adding volume, smoothing wrinkles and enhancing contours. The most common cosmetic filler is hyaluronic acid. Cosmetic filler procedures have been growing in popularity. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in 2024, there were more than ...

Human gene maps contain major blind spots because they were built largely from the DNA sequences of people with European ancestry, according to a study published today in Nature Communications.  Researchers uncovered thousands of missing transcripts (the RNA molecules that carry a gene’s instructions) in people from populations in Africa, Asia and the Americas, possibly including products of entirely new genes that scientists have yet to discover. Some of ...

Catalysts play a vital role in modern society, supporting processes from metallurgy to pharmaceutical production. To reduce environmental impact and maximize efficiency, science has pushed the boundaries between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis toward single-atom catalysts. However, working with individual atoms poses enormous challenges: it is difficult to overcome their tendency to aggregate into clusters, especially at temperatures above cryogenic levels, and it is complex to arrange them precisely in specific chemical environments.   An international team of researchers from Istituto ...

Researchers at the Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (Stevens INI) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC have identified a previously unknown pattern of organization in one of the brain’s most important areas for learning and memory. The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals that the CA1 region of a mouse’s hippocampus, a structure vital for memory formation, spatial navigation, and emotions, has four distinct layers of specialized cell types. This discovery changes our understanding of how ...

Observations with the instrument SPHERE at ESO’s Very Large Telescope have produced an unprecedented gallery of “debris disks” in exoplanetary systems. Gaël Chauvin (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), project scientist of SPHERE and co-author on the paper publishing the results, says: “This data set is an astronomical treasure. It provides exceptional insights into the properties of debris disks, and allows for deductions of smaller bodies like asteroids and comets in ...

URBANA, Ill. — Farmers plant or preserve riparian buffers for various reasons, such as improving water quality, controlling erosion, or maintaining hunting habitat. Now, a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign underscores the benefits of riparian buffers to terrestrial biodiversity, finding that for every 10% increase in forest cover, an additional species is present.  “We found raccoon and common snapping turtle DNA all over the place,” said senior study ...

December 3, 2025 – In-flight cardiac arrest is extremely rare, yet catastrophic, and responsible for up to 86% of all deaths in the air. A new comprehensive literature review highlights systemic and policy shortcomings of current aviation safety standards, calling for global alignment. Recommendations include regulated and mandated automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on board, standardized cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) protocols training, and integration of telemedicine. The article in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier, aims to inform policy regulators, airlines, and international aviation ...

As demand for safe, low-cost and grid-scale storage keeps climbing, aqueous Zn–I2 batteries attract intense attention yet are dogged by polyiodide shuttling and sluggish iodine conversion. Now, researchers from Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Beijing Institute of Technology, led by Prof. Yi Zhao, present a catalytic cathode that finally tames these twin problems. Their three-dimensional carboxyl-carbon-nanotube-wrapped polyaniline (C-PANI) realises a direct I⁰/I⁻ redox, delivering ...