Cadmium contamination in agricultural soils is a growing global concern, threatening food safety, crop productivity, and human health. New research shows that not all biochars work the same way and that choosing the right type of biochar can make the difference between trapping toxic metals in soil or unintentionally making them more mobile. In a study published online on January 15, 2026, researchers report that biochar produced at high temperatures can work together with soil microbes to effectively immobilize cadmium, one of the most hazardous heavy metals found in farmland ...

A recently identified tree species in Australia has been given the name ‘zombie’ by scientists who say ambitious assistance is needed to reverse its ‘living dead’ status. University of Queensland botanist Professor Rod Fensham said it was a race against time to save Rhodamnia zombi from the fungal disease myrtle rust. “This species did not have a name when it was first assessed in 2020, and since then 10 per cent of the trees have died and none of those remaining are producing flowers or fruit because of myrtle rust,” ...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new study led by Mayo Clinic found that postmenopausal women receiving menopausal hormone therapy lost 35% more weight while taking tirzepatide, a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for the treatment of overweight and obesity. The findings, published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health, could expand treatment possibilities for millions of women struggling with obesity and obesity-related diseases after menopause. Menopause can accelerate age-related weight gain and increase the likelihood of developing overweight and obesity, which are major risk factors for cardiovascular ...

Water behaves in remarkable ways when heated and pressurized beyond its critical point. Under these extreme conditions, known as supercritical water, it no longer acts like an ordinary liquid. Instead, it takes on properties similar to organic solvents, dissolving hydrocarbons efficiently and transporting molecules rapidly. These unique features make supercritical water a promising green medium for energy conversion technologies such as biomass gasification, plastic recycling, and in situ fuel extraction. Yet many of these reactions occur inside extremely ...

A widely distributed environmental pollutant can leave lasting biological scars that persist long after direct exposure has ended, according to a new study that tracked its effects across multiple generations of fish. Researchers found that brief exposure to benzo[a]pyrene, a toxic compound produced by fossil fuel combustion and industrial activity, disrupted normal development and skeletal health not only in directly exposed fish but also in their unexposed descendants. The study reveals that these long-term effects are driven by persistent changes in metabolism, shedding new light on how ...

With already thin profit margins and increasingly uncertain farm labor and other input costs, precision agriculture technology could improve New England’s small and medium-sized farms’ efficiency, productivity, and resilience. Unfortunately, factors such as up-front costs and validation of the technology’s accuracy in the region remain a barrier to adoption. A research team at UNH led by Benjamin Fraser, visiting assistant professor and director of the Basic and Applied Spatial Analysis ...

Center for BrainHealth, a global leader in brain health research and its practical application, announces its fourth annual BrainHealth Week, February 23–28, 2026. The week-long conference features a diverse lineup of events designed to educate and inspire people of all ages to take action for better brain health. As brain health takes center stage at global forums like Davos and the UN General Assembly, BrainHealth Week 2026, presented by Ciridian, marks a pivotal moment in cognitive neuroscience. This event brings together world-renowned neuroscientists and brain performance experts to translate breakthrough research into "brain gains." ...

What kinds of marketing messages are effective — and what makes people believe certain political slogans more than others? New research from the University of California San Diego Rady School of Management explores how people constantly evaluate whether messages are true or false and finds that a surprisingly small ingredient — whether a word has an easy opposite — can shape how confident people feel when deciding whether a message is true. “Effective messaging isn’t just about ...

Washington, D.C. | 22 January 2026 – Sujuan Ba, CEO of the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), has been named to OncoDaily’s list of the 100 Most Influential CEOs in Oncology in 2025, recognizing leaders whose work is shaping the global cancer research and care ecosystem. The annual list honors chief executives across industry, academia, policy, healthcare systems, and mission-driven organizations whose leadership has driven measurable and lasting impact in oncology worldwide. Dr. Ba is recognized alongside leaders from major cancer centers, biopharmaceutical companies, research institutions, ...

For decades, researchers thought that an October 1843 earthquake on the small Greek island of Chalke caused a powerful tsunami and led to the deaths of as many as 600 people. But a new analysis of primary accounts of the event by Ioanna Triantafyllou at Hellenic Mediterranean University suggests the truth was much less dramatic and destructive. As Triantafyllou reports in Seismological Research Letters, evidence from primary sources indicates that the mainshock occurred on Chalke on 17 September 1843, causing ...

After receiving evidence-based early interventions, roughly two-thirds of non-speaking kids with autism speak single words, and approximately half develop more complex language, according to a new study led by researchers at Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. The findings, which offer insights that might help improve success rates for the kids who remain non-speaking or minimally speaking (e.g. not combining words to form short phrases) after therapy, were recently published in the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. About one in 31 kids in the United States are autistic, according to a 2025 CDC report, a number that ...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, January 22, 2026 Contact: Gina DiGravio, 617-358-7838, ginad@bu.edu   Study Finds Alzheimer's Disease Can Be Evaluated with Brain Stimulation   (Boston)—As individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) move from the mild cognitive impairment stage to moderate and severe dementia, complex awareness deteriorates although lower-level sensory awareness is relatively maintained. Most conscious processes also become more impaired as AD progresses, including attention, working memory, episodic memory and executive function, while unconscious processes, such as ...

During pregnancy, maternal and fetal cells migrate back and forth across the placenta, with fetal cells entering the mother’s bloodstream and tissues. They can settle in maternal organs such as the thyroid, liver, lungs, brain and heart — and can persist there for decades. Conversely, maternal cells can enter the fetus and be passed down to future generations, essentially creating a lifelong connection between mothers, their offspring and their descendants. In other words, we all carry little pieces of our family with us. This phenomenon, called microchimerism, is often characterized by cells of different genetic origin ...

Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boston, MA — January 20, 2026 — Caring Cross, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to improving access to advanced therapies, and Boston Children’s Hospital today announced a collaboration to provide a sustainable, affordable pathway for patients to access stem cell gene therapies for the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The partnership centers on a worldwide license granted to Caring Cross by Boston Children’s for lentiviral-based BCL11A-LCRshRNAmiR, an innovative technology designed to “flip the switch” on fetal hemoglobin ...

NEW YORK, (January 22, 2026) – A new comprehensive review from researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai details how decades of cancer vaccine research are converging into a new era of more precise, personalized, and effective immunotherapies, particularly when combined with other cancer treatments. The review, titled “Pipe Dream to Pipeline: Journey of Cancer Vaccines and the Road Ahead” and published in Cell Reports Medicine, examines the evolution of therapeutic cancer vaccines, with a special focus on neoantigen-based ...

URBANA, Ill. – Antibiotic resistance in human and animal health is on the forefront of public debate, but it’s a less well-known issue in plant agriculture. However, antibiotics are important tools in fruit production, and their efficacy hinges on avoiding resistance in disease-causing bacteria.  The U.S. does not currently restrict antibiotics use in fruit orchards, but regulatory measures could occur in the future. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign ...

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 22, 2026 — University of California, Irvine and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health researchers have identified fundamental structural and functional differences between two major causes of mitral valve stenosis. This narrowing restricts blood flow through the heart. The findings challenge current diagnostic approaches and may help clinicians tailor treatment decisions for a growing patient population. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, combined 3D ultrasound heart imaging ...

Scientists have recovered a genome of Treponema pallidum – the bacterium whose subspecies today are responsible for four treponemal diseases, including syphilis – from 5,500-year-old human remains in Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia. The research expands knowledge about the history of this infectious disease and its occurrence in human populations, with findings now published in the journal Science.    The individual was archaeologically recovered from a rock shelter near Bogotá, Colombia, dating back roughly 5,500 years. The discovery pushes the genetic record of this pathogenic ...

Men assess potential rivals that have a larger penis as more of a threat, both physically and sexually, according to a study by Upama Aich at the University of Western Australia and colleagues, publishing January 22nd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology. Relative to body size, the human penis is larger than that of other primates, a fact that has puzzled evolutionary biologists. Before the invention of clothing, the penis would have been a prominent feature that might influence potential mates and ...

Space debris—the thousands of pieces of human-made objects abandoned in Earth’s orbit—pose a risk to humans when they fall to the ground. To locate possible crash sites, a Johns Hopkins University scientist has helped to devise a way to track falling debris using existing networks of earthquake-detecting seismometers.  The new tracking method generates more detailed information in near real-time than authorities have today—information that will help to quickly locate and retrieve the charred and sometimes toxic remains.  “Re-entries are happening more frequently. Last year, we had multiple satellites entering our atmosphere ...

Generative AI is reshaping software development – and fast. A new study published in Science shows that AI-assisted coding is spreading rapidly, though unevenly: in the U.S., the share of new code relying on AI rose from 5% in 2022 to 29% in early 2025, compared with just 12% in China. AI usage is highest among less experienced programmers, but productivity gains go to seasoned developers. The software industry is enormous. In the U.S. economy alone, firms spend an estimated $600 billion a year in wages on coding-related work. Every day, billions of lines of code keep the global economy running. How is AI changing this backbone of modern ...

A newly sequenced genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum, highlights the deep antiquity of treponemal diseases in the Americas. The findings, based on a 5,500-year-old specimen from Colombia, suggest syphilis’s emergence was not dependent on the agricultural intensification and population crowding often linked to the spread of infectious disease. Instead, it was dependent on social and ecological conditions of hunter-gatherer societies. “Reframing syphilis, alongside other infectious diseases, as products of both localized and highly specific ...

Researchers present a novel way to track errant space debris as it falls to Earth in near-real-time, according to a new study. Their method uses ground-based seismic sensors. Over the last several years, the number of spent spacecraft and other debris reentering Earth’s atmosphere has grown exponentially. These uncontrolled reentries pose increasing risks to human life, infrastructure, and the environment. As Earth’s orbit grows increasingly crowded and reentries become more frequent – potentially involving spacecraft carrying toxic, flammable, or radioactive materials – these risks are expected to become more of ...

New findings offer insight into why some embryos fail to develop past zygotic genome activation (ZGA), pointing to an unexpected root of human infertility. A critical point in early development is zygotic genome activation (ZGA), a milestone that marks the transition from reliance on maternal factors to activation of its own genome. This process requires a comprehensive reshaping of chromatin and transcription networks. Failures in ZGA are a major cause of early embryo arrest and contribute to cases of infertility and pregnancy loss. Previous research has shown that endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) – genetic remnants of ancient viral infections ...

In a Policy Forum, Daniel Schroeder and colleagues discuss the risks of malicious “Artificial Intelligence (AI) swarms”, which enable a new class of large-scale, coordinated disinformation campaigns that pose significant risks to democracy. Manipulation of public opinion has long relied on rhetoric and propaganda. However, modern AI systems have created powerful new tools for shaping human beliefs and behavior on a societal scale. Large language models (LLMs) and autonomous agents can now generate vast amounts of persuasive, human-like content. When combined into collaborative AI Swarms – collections of AI-driven personas that retain memory and identity – ...