The press release
archive.

Medicine23 Mar 2026

Do psychosocial factors affect cancer risk?

New research indicates that psychosocial factors—which influence how a person perceives, interprets, and reacts to their surroundings—do not affect an individual’s risk of developing cancer. The findings are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. For the study, investigators examined data from the Psychosocial Factors and Cancer (PSY-CA) consortium, an international research collaboration funded by the Dutch Cancer Society that analyzes information from prospective studies to assess whether psychosocial factors—such as perceived social support, loss of a loved one, relationship ...

Read the release

Science23 Mar 2026

Initial tests find lead in children’s fast-fashion clothing

ATLANTA, March 23, 2026 — Fast fashion is an inexpensive way to dress rapidly growing kids. But preliminary research has found that the fabric in some of these items contains an unwanted, toxic ingredient: lead. After testing several shirts from different retailers, undergraduate researchers found that all samples exceeded U.S. federal regulatory lead limits. They also estimate that even briefly chewing these fabrics (which young kids tend to do) could expose children to dangerous lead levels. The researchers will present their results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring ...

Read the release

Science23 Mar 2026

Foreign volunteer fighters in Ukraine face intense combat trauma with almost no support

The first study of US and UK military veterans who volunteered to fight in Ukraine reveals extreme combat exposure including drone warfare and trench fighting, with high rates of PTSD, moral injury, and alcohol misuse. Most struggled to access mental health care in Ukraine or after returning home.

Read the release

Engineering23 Mar 2026

Drone footage captures sperm whales headbutting each other for the first time

Researchers at the University of St Andrews used drones to film sperm whales headbutting one another in the Azores and Balearic Islands - the first scientific documentation of a behavior that 19th-century whalers described and that inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick. Surprisingly, it was sub-adults, not large males, engaging in the collisions.

Read the release

Environment23 Mar 2026

It is the soil, not the plant, that sets the limit on water uptake during drought

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the University of Tasmania have found that the limiting factor in plant water uptake is not the plant's own physiology but the physics of water movement through soil pores. The finding, published in Science, explains why breeding programs aimed at making drought-resistant crops through increased cellular solute concentrations have consistently failed.

Read the release

Medicine23 Mar 2026

Stress, grief, and loneliness do not raise cancer risk, large meta-analysis finds

The PSY-CA consortium analyzed data from 421,799 individuals and found that psychosocial factors like stress, bereavement, neuroticism, and social isolation are not associated with increased cancer risk. Small associations with lung cancer largely disappeared after adjusting for smoking and other behavioral risk factors.

Read the release

Medicine23 Mar 2026

Single-cell sequencing uncovers three hidden species in a genus linked to sleeping sickness

By sequencing individual cells from a freshwater sample, scientists at the Earlham Institute and University of Oxford discovered three potentially new species of the protist Bodo, each hosting a distinct bacterial endosymbiont. The work reveals biodiversity invisible to conventional genomic methods.

Read the release

Science23 Mar 2026

Want to change a group's mind? Math says: make opponents neutral first

New mathematical modeling and experiments from the University of Bath demonstrate that groups change their collective opinion more quickly when opponents are encouraged to adopt a neutral stance rather than being directly persuaded to switch sides. The effect was confirmed in both locust swarms and human voting games.

Read the release

Medicine23 Mar 2026

Ambulances often slow care for injured patients in Ghana, Pakistan, Rwanda, and South Africa

Across four low- and middle-income countries, 57% of seriously injured patients failed to reach care within the critical first hour. Patients transported by ambulance arrived more slowly than those using private vehicles, revealing that investing in ambulance fleets alone will not fix pre-hospital emergency care.

Read the release

Medicine22 Mar 2026

Tracking pediatric sepsis with clinical data exposes gaps in hospital billing records

A new national surveillance system using clinical data from electronic health records identifies pediatric sepsis more accurately than billing codes. Applied to 3.9 million hospitalizations, it estimates over 18,000 annual cases with 10% in-hospital mortality.

Read the release

Medicine22 Mar 2026

One in ten children with sepsis die in US hospitals, first national clinical estimate finds

A new JAMA study using clinical data from electronic health records estimates that sepsis occurs in 1.3% of US pediatric hospitalizations, with 10% mortality - translating to more than 18,000 cases and 1,800 deaths annually. The approach proved more accurate than traditional billing codes.

Read the release

Medicine22 Mar 2026

Who gets ECMO and who does not? Clinicians say guidelines are not driving the decision

Interviews with clinicians reveal that decisions to offer venovenous ECMO for severe respiratory failure rely heavily on individual judgment rather than objective guidelines, raising concerns about inconsistent and potentially inequitable allocation of a scarce resource.

Read the release

Environment22 Mar 2026

Hawaii is paving roads with abandoned fishing nets - and the microplastic risk appears minimal

Researchers at Hawaii Pacific University tested asphalt pavement made with recycled fishing nets and residential plastic waste on an Oahu road for 11 months. Microplastic shedding was comparable to standard polymer-modified asphalt, and tire wear dominated the polymer signal in road dust.

Read the release

Science22 Mar 2026

Surfactant does not help babies with severe bronchiolitis - the largest trial of its kind confirms

The BESS trial, the largest randomized study of surfactant for bronchiolitis, found no reduction in ventilator time for 232 critically ill babies across 15 UK hospitals - closing the door on a hypothesis that had persisted for years.

Read the release

Medicine21 Mar 2026

Neurofilament light chain predicts cognitive decline after cardiac arrest where the standard test fails

In cardiac arrest survivors, neurofilament light chain levels at 48 hours correlated with long-term cognitive outcomes on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, while the standard biomarker neuron-specific enolase did not - suggesting a more reliable tool for early prognosis.

Read the release

Social Science21 Mar 2026

Are doctoral students using ChatGPT to think harder or to think less?

University of Phoenix researchers reviewed the scholarly literature on generative AI tools in academia, finding that ChatGPT and similar tools are reshaping doctoral research workflows while raising unresolved questions about transparency and original analysis.

Read the release

Medicine21 Mar 2026

Fluorescence imaging during bowel surgery cuts dangerous leak rates by 40%

A systematic review of nine randomized controlled trials finds that indocyanine green fluorescence angiography reduces anastomotic leaks by 40% in colorectal surgery. The complication, which can cause sepsis and death, affects up to one in four patients after bowel operations.

Read the release

Science21 Mar 2026

King Harold didn't march to Hastings — he sailed, and the famous 200-mile trek is Victorian fiction

For over two centuries, textbooks have described Harold's exhausting forced march from Yorkshire to Hastings before the Norman Conquest. New research from the University of East Anglia shows this never happened. Harold kept his fleet and moved his army by sea.

Read the release

Technology20 Mar 2026

Compact molecular orbitals spotted in a kagome metal — confirming a key quantum theory

Physicists have directly visualized compact molecular orbitals in the kagome metal Ni3In, confirming a theory linking flat electronic bands to quantum critical behavior. The work, published in Nature Physics, could inform the search for high-temperature superconductors.

Read the release

Medicine20 Mar 2026

AI-guided stroke system cut new vascular events by 27% across 77 Chinese hospitals

In a trial spanning 77 hospitals and over 21,000 patients, an AI clinical decision support system that analyzes brain scans and recommends treatments reduced new vascular events by 27% at one year compared with standard care. Published in The BMJ.

Read the release

Medicine20 Mar 2026

Neuro-symbolic AI solves robot tasks at 1% the energy cost — with triple the accuracy

A Tufts University team built a hybrid AI system that merges pattern recognition with symbolic logic. In robot block-stacking tests, it hit 95% accuracy versus 34% for standard models, trained in 34 minutes instead of a day and a half, and consumed a fraction of the energy.

Read the release

Science20 Mar 2026

Foster youth with strong emotional support were less likely to end up incarcerated

Among youth transitioning out of foster care, those who reported adequate emotional support had significantly lower odds of incarceration, according to research in Social Work Research -- suggesting that who listens matters more than how many people are around.

Read the release

Science20 Mar 2026

Randomly assigned to Team Spain, people still believed biased facts about it

When 600 participants were randomly sorted into arbitrary teams, they judged pro-team statements as more credible -- not because of what they knew, but because of what they wanted to believe, according to a study in Psychological Science.

Read the release

Medicine20 Mar 2026

Iron-laced biochar destroys 90% of antibiotics in water using low-energy sound waves

A new biochar-carbon nanotube-iron carbide composite achieved over 90% removal of enrofloxacin and amoxicillin from water under low-frequency ultrasound, outperforming conventional materials by 15-fold while using substantially less energy.

Read the release

Engineering20 Mar 2026

The $60 billion perfume industry depends on plants it does nothing to protect

With 45% of flowering plants at risk of extinction and the fragrance market heading toward $100 billion by 2034, researchers argue in BioScience that the industry must move past sustainability branding and directly finance plant conservation.

Read the release