The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of four research articles recently published across its esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores unexpected links between Arctic land and sea, how much beavers could counter the threat of wildfire, whether uniformity within a species is good for biodiversity and what happened after ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – November 6, 2025) The enzyme RNA polymerase II transcribes genes into messenger RNA. This process is guided by modifications to the enzyme’s “tail” called phosphorylation patterns. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital explored these patterns, identifying 117 kinases that could phosphorylate multiple locations within the protein tail. This greatly expands upon the set of kinases previously known to phosphorylate RNA polymerase II. The work also links the enzyme’s activity to ...

Why This Matters: Accelerates Crop Innovation: Cuts months off the process of developing gene-edited crops, speeding up the path from gene discovery to field-ready varieties. Expands Accessibility: Reduces reliance on specialized tissue culture labs, making advanced bioengineering feasible for more research institutions and crop species. Boosts Global Food Security: Has the potential to enable faster breeding of crops with better resilience, nutrient efficiency and disease resistance. A team of plant biotechnologists ...

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), in collaboration with Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), the City of Worcester, and more than 30 regional partners, has been awarded $5.2 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to establish the BioHub, a transformative initiative designed to power the bioindustrial revolution in Central Massachusetts.  The award was announced by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll at an event held at WPI, where she also recognized 14 other innovation and technology projects funded by the state to strengthen Massachusetts’ growing innovation economy.  The BioHub will ...

The United States is falling far behind China in remote sensing research, according to a comprehensive new study that tracked seven decades of academic publishing and reveals a notable reversal in global technological standing. China now accounts for nearly half of all peer-reviewed journal publications in this critical field, while American output has declined to single digits. "This represents one of the most significant shifts in global technological leadership in recent history," said Debra ...

A new study identified large clusters of food deserts, where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food, in East London—particularly Newham, Redbridge, and Barking and Dagenham—and in parts of west London such as Ealing and Brent. The findings were published November 6th in the open-access journal PLOS Complex Systems by Tayla Broadbridge of the University of Nottingham, UK, and colleagues. Poor diet and unequal access to healthy food are linked to rising rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. To effectively target interventions to areas where residents face barriers ...

An unprecedented heatwave and drought in 2023 turned the Amazon’s lakes into shallow simmering basins, with water temperatures soaring to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (ºC) in one case and water levels plunging to record lows, researchers report. The extreme temperatures had impacts ranging from isolating remote riverine communities to driving mass die-offs in fish and endangered Amazon river dolphins. The findings confirm a worrisome warming trend across the Amazon’s poorly monitored lakes and rivers and portend escalating ...

New research reveals how genetic changes in the barley MKK3 gene fine-tune seed dormancy, determining whether grains stay dormant or sprout too soon. The findings offer breeders new genetic tools to balance seed dormancy and crop resilience under changing climate conditions. The rise of agriculture was driven by the intentional selection of crops with improved traits. One key trait under selection, particularly in cereal crops, is grain dormancy – the period before which a seed can germinate. In wild cereals, grain dormancy helps ensure plant survival under unpredictable conditions. ...

A new record of Arctic sea-ice coverage – informed by the slow and steady sedimentation of cosmic dust on the sea floor – reveals that ancient ice waxed and waned with atmospheric warming, not ocean heat, over the last 300,000 years. The findings provide rare insights into how modern melting in the region could reshape the Arctic’s nutrient balance and biological productivity. The Arctic is warming more rapidly than any other region on Earth, driving a precipitous decline in sea ice coverage. This loss not only affects the region’s marine ecosystems and coastal communities, but it also has far-reaching implications on global ...

Models that inform how magma moves and volcanic eruptions unfold may need an update, according to a new study. It reports that gas bubbles in magmas can form through the mechanical forces of shear as magmas flow and deform–  a new physical mechanism for magma bubble nucleation that challenges conventional degassing models. The formation of gas bubbles within magma – also known as nucleation – is a fundamental process that shapes how volcanic eruptions unfold. The timing and rate at which these bubbles appear and expand influences key magma features, including its buoyancy, viscosity, and explosive potential. Understanding nucleation is therefore vital for ...

Arctic sea ice has declined by more than 42% since 1979, when regular satellite monitoring began. As the ice grows thinner and recedes, more water is exposed to sunlight. Ice reflects sunlight but dark water absorbs it, advancing warming and accelerating ice loss. Climate models indicate that the Arctic will see ice-free summers within the coming decades, and scientists still aren’t sure what this will mean for life on Earth.  Researchers have known for some time that fine-grained dust from space blankets the surface of Earth, falling from the cosmos at a constant rate and settling into ocean sediments. A study published Nov. 6 in Science shows that tracking where cosmic dust has ...

Superconductors are like the express trains in a metro system. Any electricity that “boards” a superconducting material can zip through it without stopping and losing energy along the way. As such, superconductors are extremely energy efficient, and are used today to power a variety of applications, from MRI machines to particle accelerators.  But these “conventional” superconductors are somewhat limited in terms of uses because they must be brought down to ultra-low temperatures using elaborate cooling systems to keep them in their superconducting state. If ...

For decades, scientists have generally thought that rivers emit more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, than they take in. But a new analysis of every river network in the contiguous United States — including underrepresented rivers in deserts and shrublands — challenges this assumption, uncovering hints that many Western waterways may be soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The findings were published in Science and led by Taylor Maavara, an aquatic biogeochemist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “Rivers ...

(Vienna, 6 November 2025) Inside every cell, a finely tuned metabolic network determines when to build, recycle, or stop producing essential molecules. A central part of this network is folate metabolism, a process that provides vital chemical units for the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and amino acids. When this system is disturbed - for example through genetic mutations or a lack of dietary folates - the consequences can range from developmental disorders to cancer. Now, researchers from CeMM, the Research ...

New research has used purchasing data to map areas of London where residents may be suffering from a nutritionally inadequate diet, pinpointing where there are ‘food deserts.’ Researchers from the University of Nottingham and Adelaide analysed Tesco food purchasing records from 1.6 million people across London to understand how food purchase patterns vary and what they reveal about health. Their results, published today in PLOS Complex Systems, show clear differences in the nutritional ...

New research has confirmed that West Coast transient killer whales who live between British Columbia and California are two distinct subpopulations: inner and outer coast transients. Based on 16 years of data from more than 2,200 encounters, the study published in PLOS One challenges previous assumptions about this group of mammal-eating killer whales. “I've been thinking about this possibility for 15 years,” says first author Josh McInnes, who conducted the research as part of his masters at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF). “Now our findings show the West Coast ...

Lasers that emit extremely short light pulses are highly precise and are used in manufacturing, medical applications, and research. The problem: efficient short-pulse lasers require a lot of space and are expensive. Researchers at the University of Stuttgart have developed a new system in cooperation with Stuttgart Instruments GmbH. It is more than twice as efficient as previous systems, fits in the palm of a hand, and is highly versatile. The scientists describe their approach in the journal Nature. (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09665-w) Eighty percent efficiency is possible “With our new system, we can achieve levels of efficiency ...

BraDiPho was presented in a paper published in Nature Communications, with Laura Vavassori as first author. She is a doctoral student at the Center for Brain/Mind Sciences (Cimec) of the University of Trento with a grant funded by Apss through the NeuSurPlan project of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which is co-funded by Apss. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines clinical neuroscience, artificial intelligence and neuroanatomy, the research work was coordinated by Silvio Sarubbo, professor at the Center for Medical Sciences (Cismed), Cimec and the Department of Cellular, Computational and Integrative Biology (Cibio) of UniTrento ...

The bacteria Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii) is a haunting presence in many hospitals in the United States, where more than one in 100 patients are treated for A. baumannii infections. This species of bacteria is known for its dynamic genome and ability to gain antibiotic resistance. “This is a deadly pathogen that is notorious for its resistance to traditional drugs,” said Andrei Osterman, PhD, a professor in the Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute and vice dean and associate dean of Curriculum in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Prior ...

Spatial maps of lung precancer and cancer cells at different points in development advance understanding of the earliest stages of lung cancer Findings highlight inflammation as a driver of lung tumor initiation Targeting inflammation could be a potential therapeutic strategy to intercept lung cancer and improve patient outcomes By creating high-resolution cellular and molecular visual maps of lung cancer before and during development, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that the earliest stages of lung cancer may be driven by inflammation, suggesting that ...

A widely prescribed diabetes drug may be sabotaging one of the most trusted strategies for preventing the disease: exercise. That is the conclusion of a Rutgers-led study published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, which found that metformin blunts critical improvements in blood vessel function, fitness and blood sugar control that normally come from working out. Since 2006, doctors have been advised to tell patients with high blood sugar to take metformin while engaging in exercise. Two proven therapies should deliver better results together, they reasoned. But Rutgers researchers ...

Tambet Teesalu, University of Tartu Professor of Nanomedicine, has been awarded an ERC Synergy Grant to study the blood-nerve barrier – the interface between blood vessels and nerve cells – in search of solutions to shortcomings in pain treatment.  Teesalu’s research group, in collaboration with colleagues from the United Kingdom, Italy and France, will focus closely on the peripheral nervous system to create a detailed molecular and spatial map of the blood-nerve barrier and therapeutic approaches that could influence ...

A new dataset released via the Human Climate Horizons (HCH) data platform by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Report Office, in collaboration with the Climate Impact Lab, warns that climate change is set to dramatically undermine agricultural productivity, with some of the greatest risks concentrated in countries least able to adapt. The dataset, sourced from a Nature study released in June by the Climate Impact Lab and collaborating institutions [press release], finds every additional degree Celsius of global warming ...

Quantum computers are powerful, lightning-fast and notoriously difficult to connect to one another over long distances.  Previously, the maximum distance two quantum computers could connect through a fiber cable was a few kilometers. This means that, even if fiber cable were run between them, quantum computers in the University of Chicago’s South Side campus and downtown Chicago’s Willis Tower would be too far apart to communicate with each other.  Research published today in Nature ...

NEW ORLEANS (Nov. 6, 2025) —Fewer than half of young adults with severely high low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C), or “bad” cholesterol, levels start taking a statin within five years of first high LDL-C measurement, according to a study published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and presented at the American Heart Association’s 2025 Scientific Sessions. The 2018 ACC/AHA Cholesterol Guideline recommends a statin in patients with LDL-C over 190 mg/dL and these ...